Visually striking but conceptually flawed
Moon phases are compared to shapes such as “the cat’s long, curved tail” in this French import.
In strong yellow, black, and white, with large board pages and a die-cut cover revealing a waxing crescent moon, each double-page spread features a different phase. The first spread reads: “On this night, matthew thinks the moon could be a bow for his arrow.” (On other pages, names are capitalized.) The waxing crescent is yellow, while the part of the moon not seen from Earth is shiny black on the matte black background. A small white line drawing of Matthew shooting an arrow shows his yellow bow in the same crescent shape, but the illustrations are not always consistent. The full moon includes a black line drawing of humans and animals. The full-circle shapes are found in the round sunglasses worn by various characters, but some wear square glasses. In the waning gibbous spread, “Holly the owl keeps watch with one eye open.” The black line drawing of the owl shows a black crescent shape, curve down, as the “open” eye. The shiny black sliver that represents the part of the moon not seen orients the curve to the right. This inconsistency gets in the way of helping young readers make sense of the phases. The final spread, with text for older readers, offers a more comprehensive sense of how the phases progress.
Visually striking but conceptually flawed . (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63322-298-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walter Foster Jr.
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
This retro salute to friendship simply tries to be too much to be successful—it does not hold a candle to McGhee's prior...
The early-children’s-book feel of Rosenthal’s pencil-and-digital illustrations is what will first strike readers of McGhee’s rather morose celebration of the forever nature of friendship.
A young boy looks forward to winter’s snowy fun. When it finally arrives, he crafts the perfect snowman friend, complete with nose, mouth, eyes, arms and the bright-red ball cap taken from his own head. He labels him, “My Snowman.” But while it is obvious that the boy spends some time admiring the snowman, the wordless pages devoted to their relationship fail to develop it fully, and readers may be left wondering why he is so sad when spring melts his friend. Where is he? Intuiting concepts beyond his apparent years, the boy finds his friend in the falling water and rain, in the fog and frost (although it is never explained to young readers how this is scientifically so), proving that McGhee’s unsubtly stated message is true: “What you love will always be with you.” And when the seasons come full circle, the two are reacquainted. Rosenthal’s illustrations are blotches of color on a stark white background, echoing the wintry setting and the boy’s sorrow, as well as the sparseness of the slow-paced text.
This retro salute to friendship simply tries to be too much to be successful—it does not hold a candle to McGhee's prior works such as Someday or Little Boy, both illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds (2007, 2008) (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8998-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
Even the youngest children don’t deserve this degree of dumbing down.
Little Raindrop journeys from cloud to sea and back again.
This is the water cycle, but it’s a simplistic telling that lacks any scientific vocabulary and stars an anthropomorphized water droplet with a face, hands and feet. Little Raindrop’s adventure begins as he falls from a cloud “[o]ne dark and stormy day,” but by the page turn, there’s enough sunlight to have made a rainbow, which Little Raindrop falls through, enjoying the colors along the way. Landing in a depression on a rock, his journey continues when other drops (nonanthropomorphized) accumulate enough to make his puddle overflow. Joining a stream, he sees all kinds of animals and chases the sticks the children toss in the water. When his stream joins a river, Little Raindrop avoids the sharp rocks of the waterfalls; in the sea, he meets dolphins. Coming to rest on the sand, “Little Raindrop got hotter and hotter, until the warmth of the sun drew him up into the air,” still in the shape of a raindrop, where he joins other smiling droplets in a gray cloud. Kolanovic’s illustrations have the gritty look of crayon drawings. Little Raindrop’s surroundings match his small size; while the background details are simple, the animals he encounters all sweet—cloyingly so. Fortunately the wellspring of intellectually respectful titles on the water cycle is far from dry.
Even the youngest children don’t deserve this degree of dumbing down. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62873-821-6
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
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