Geography students interested in learning about new locations—or wanting to celebrate places near home—should enjoy this...
A robin gets an insider’s view of Los Angeles in this travelogue and fifth installment of a picture book series.
Although Robin flies to Los Angeles, she doesn’t use her wings but arrives in LAX like most tourists. The amiable bird hits a major event and many of the most famous spots of the well-known city, both entertaining and educational, including the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Griffith Park Observatory, the Hollywood Bowl, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and Rodeo Drive. But some lesser-known treasures are also included, such as the Third and Fairfax Farmers Market, along with places of natural beauty like the Pacific Palisades and Los Liones Canyon. Barone’s (Where Is Robin? USA, 2017, etc.) selection of locations is excellent. But while her rhyming couplets are clean, they often scan unevenly, making it hard to keep a consistent rhythm. Robin also has a lot of experiences only available to celebrities and fictional characters: she’s able to play in a Kings’ hockey game, conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic, sing at the Hollywood Bowl, and perform jazz at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Debut illustrator Gozhansky does a masterful job of keeping her images consistent with the rest of the series, and her cartoonish depictions of Robin make the discrepancies in the bird’s size from spread to spread seem reasonable. The cast, both animal and human, is as appealingly diverse as the Los Angeles sites.
Geography students interested in learning about new locations—or wanting to celebrate places near home—should enjoy this clever look at LA.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9906310-8-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Diplomat Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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