To quote one of many exuberant, action-packed spreads: “Enjoy the ride!” (Picture book. 4-8)
Adding to a growing genre, this picture book shouts—no, hollers at the top of its lungs—praise to the codex.
The very title, along with the bold primary colors and enormous (fake) prize medal on the cover, will be an opportunity for young children to gleefully answer the question, “What book are you reading?” The sparse, large-print text begins with a double-page spread that says on the verso, “Take the first step,” and on the recto, “Turn the first page.” The pictures quickly and cleverly move from depicting relatively realistic reading nooks to the places readers go in their imaginations. Both the crazy-quilt pattern of the endpapers and the interior pages are filled with brightly colored, geometric creatures and people actively engaged in activities such as sky diving, enjoying amusement-park rides, trekking across deserts and spelunking. In addition to the gently rhythmic near-rhymes that encourage readers to plunge themselves into books, the other common thread through the kaleidoscope of pulsating scenes is the stylized image of a child (probably a girl), always colored red, always with ponytails, always clutching her book. Although there is a slight calming toward the end, excitement reigns, right up to the gently mind-bending metafictive moment that concludes the book.
To quote one of many exuberant, action-packed spreads: “Enjoy the ride!” (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-909263-30-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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