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THE RED EAR BLOWS ITS NOSE

Name: THE RED EAR BLOWS ITS NOSE
Author: Robert Schechter
ISBN: 978-1-77349-134-9

POEMS FOR CHILDREN AND OTHERS

by Robert Schechter ; illustrated by S. Federico ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2023

Smells like a winner.

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Schechter contemplates the sun, the moon, his nose, and other prominent subjects in this wide-ranging debut collection.

Showing masterful command of metrics and rhyme, the poet launches observations both playful and reflective on topics from seasons to self. He lays personal claim in “What’s Mine” to the surreal titular “red ear.” Schechter also praises nonconformity (“The Horse Who Said Moo,” “Why Can’t an Elephant?”) and in a scientific vein wonders “does the caterpillar brain / in the butterfly remain?” or if two observers might see the same “Colors” differently. Even when tackling serious themes (“Fomenting war is bad. Make peace! / Don’t let the world get blown up. / You know this. You don’t need this poem. / Unless you are a grown-up”) he keeps the tone light and dishes up plenty of outright crowd pleasers, notably by trumpeting a paean to his nose (“Thank You, Nose”), wishing for an “Adjustable Nose,” and urging readers in “Nosy Advice” to be proud of their own, since “You only get one nose in life, / so make sure you don’t blow it.” The line drawings, featuring figures with skin the white of the page, that Federico places alongside most of the entries aren’t as comical as Shel Silverstein’s but do share some of the same open, breezy look.

Smells like a winner. (Poetry. 6-11)

Pub Date: April 7, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-77349-134-9

Page Count: 118

Publisher: Word Galaxy

Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

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WHAT YOU NEED TO BE WARM

by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Various ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 2023

No substitute for blankets or shelter, but perhaps a way of securing some warmth for those in need.

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Gaiman’s free-verse meditation on coming in from, or at least temporarily fending off, the cold is accompanied by artwork from 13 illustrators.

An ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the author put out a social media appeal in 2019 asking people about their memories of warmth; the result is this picture book, whose proceeds will go to the UNHCR. For many refugees and other displaced persons, Gaiman writes, “food and friends, / home, a bed, even a blanket, / become just memories.” Here he gathers images that signify warmth, from waking in a bed “burrowed beneath blankets / and comforters” to simply holding a baked potato or being offered a scarf. Using palettes limited to black and the warm orange in which most of the text is printed, an international slate of illustrators give these images visual form, and 12 of the 13 add comments about their intentions or responses. The war in Ukraine is on the minds of Pam Smy and Bagram Ibatoulline, while Majid Adin recalls his time as a refugee in France’s “Calais jungle” camp. “You have the right to be here,” the poet concludes, which may give some comfort to those facing the cold winds of public opinion in too many of the places where refugees fetch up. The characters depicted are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

No substitute for blankets or shelter, but perhaps a way of securing some warmth for those in need. (Picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063358089

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Chris Riddell

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by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Divya Srinivasan

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by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Chris Riddell

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IN PRAISE OF MYSTERY

by Ada Limón ; illustrated by Peter Sís ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be.

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In U.S. Poet Laureate Limón’s debut picture book, soaring images and lyrics invite contemplation of life’s wonders—on Earth and perhaps, tantalizingly, elsewhere.

“O second moon,” writes Limón, “we, too, are made / of water, // of vast and beckoning seas.” In visual responses to a poem that will be carried by NASA’s Europa Clipper, a probe scheduled for launch in October 2024 and designed to check Jupiter’s ice-covered ocean moon for possible signs of life, Sís offers flowing glimpses of earthly birds and whales, of heavenly bodies lit with benevolent smiles, and a small light-skinned space traveler flying between worlds in a vessel held aloft by a giant book. Following the undulations of the poet’s cadence, falling raindrops give way to shimmering splashes, then to a climactic fiery vision reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night before finishing with mirrored human figures made of stars. Visual images evocative of the tree of life presage what Límon writes in her afterword: that her poem is as much about “our own precious planet” as it is about what may lie in wait for us to discover on others. “We, too, are made of wonders, of great / and ordinary loves, // of small invisible worlds, // of a need to call out through the dark.”

A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be. (Picture book. 7-10)