Readers will make faces, but they’ll be faces of confusion and disappointment.
Zany moods abound in Alegria and Kuvarzina’s picture book.
“What makes a face? Just a mouth and two eyes, a nose and a chin? / Yes, that’s all true, but did you know that your face can make faces too?” Except this is not true, of course, for any readers who do not have one or more of these features. The cover’s (racially) diverse array of human faces promptly gives way to illustrations featuring anthropomorphic animals, each corresponding to a different emotion (“OH NO! Look at the SAD llama pout!”) and instructions to mimic the expression. While most of the “faces” presented are straightforward (“serious”; “bashful”), a few are puzzlingly nonsensical (“Make a face like a MONKEY and swing your arms about”). Forced enthusiasm rings false (“That was so SUPER fun!”), while some humor fails to land: “HAHA hoHO / Look at the funny hippo dancing for you!” the text declares (just how is that hippo meant to be funny?). The mix of hand lettering and a more standard serif type (of varying fonts) makes it clear this is not a text for new readers, and while the text begs for a group read-aloud, the frenetic, bright illustrations and the difficult lettering make this a less-than-ideal choice. Finally, the small and stylized (think Raschka-esque) facial expressions fail to land the emotional punch the text requires.
Readers will make faces, but they’ll be faces of confusion and disappointment. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-57687-850-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: POW!
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Sweet.
A caregiving bear shares with its cub how love has defined their relationship from the first moment and through the years as the cub has grown.
With rhymes and a steady rhythm that are less singsong-y than similar books, Stansbie seems to have hit a sweet spot for this offering on the I-love-you-always shelf. Readers follow the adult and child as they share special moments together—a sunset, a splash in a pond, climbing a tree, a snuggle—and the adult tells the child that the love it feels has only grown. Stansbie also takes care not to put promises in the adult bear’s mouth that can’t be delivered, acknowledging that physical proximity is not always possible: “Wherever you are, / even when we’re apart… // I’ll love you forever / with all of my heart.” The large trim size helps the sweet illustrations shine; their emphasis is on the close relationship between parent and child. Shaped peekaboo windows offer glimpses of preceding and succeeding pages, images and text carefully placed to work whatever the context. While the die cuts on the interior pages will not hold up to rough handling, they do add whimsy and delight to the book as a whole: “And now that you’re bigger, / you make my heart sing. / My / beautiful / wonderful / magical / thing.” Those last three adjectives are positioned in leaf-shaped cutouts, the turn of the page revealing the roly-poly cub in a pile of leaves, three formed by the die-cuts. Opposite, three vignettes show the cub appreciating the “beautiful,” the “wonderful,” and the “magical.”
Sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68412-910-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Dolphin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt.
A love song from parents to their child.
This title will seem quite similar to the many others about parents’ deep love for their children. The text is wholly composed of first-person declarations of parental love, and it’s juxtaposed with illustrations of the child with one or both parents. It’s not always clear who the “I” speaking is, and there are a few pages that instead use “we.” Most sentences begin with “I love you more” phrasing to communicate that nothing could undermine parental love: “I love you more than all the sleepless nights…and all the early, tired mornings.” The accompanying pictures depict the child as a baby with weary parents. Later spreads show the child growing up, and the phrasing shifts away from the challenges of parenting to its joys and to attempts to quantify love: “I love you more than all the blades of grass at the park…and all the soccer that we played.” Throughout, Bell’s illustrations use pastel tones and soft visual texture to depict cozy, wholesome scenes that are largely redundant of the straightforward, warm text. They feature a brown-haired family with a mother, father, and child, who all appear to be white (though the father has skin that’s a shade darker than the others’).
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0652-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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