Wee toddler Bartleby is almost as inscrutable as his Melvillean namesake, though a sight more cooperative. He gurgles and coos, chortles and clucks—he just doesn’t speak. The distress of the rest of the Huddle family is cacophonous: Mama sings opera, Papa plays the cello, big sister Isadora tap-dances and even poodle Ludwig barks—all complete with loud-looking sound effects—hoping to inspire the jug-eared boy to join in the family conversation. He smiles and says not a word, though, till his third birthday, when his equally jug-eared Grampy takes Bartleby out to the porch for some mutual quiet time. When the boy blows out the candles on his cake, he speaks his wish: “Listen.” Hawkes accompanies Cruise’s gently pointed text with characteristically comic line-and-color cartoons, varying vignettes with full- and double-page spreads that focus readers’ attention exactly where it needs to be, modulating noise and silence through artful pacing. A sweetly underscored paean to the beauty of quiet. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-374-30514-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2009
The woolly with the big personality and the extremely long nightcap (Russell the Sheep, 2005) finds a buried chest filled with—well, not the “treasure” he’s expecting. Inspired by a glimpse of the tattered map in a passing crow’s mouth, Russell sets to in his lab (doesn’t every sheep have one?), constructs a treasure detector that resembles a robotic hockey stick and unearths a trunk. Though all he finds inside is miscellaneous junk, his disappointment doesn’t last long; picking up a ratty old flash camera, he’s soon happily taking snaps of his flock, friends and everything else. Scotton’s scenes of popeyed livestock mugging for the camera capture the profound flakiness of the entire episode, and the final view of an ovine audience poring over the resulting photo album will have young viewers agreeing with Russell that he has found “The best treasure ever.” Place this take on the value of family pictures alongside the similarly themed likes of Amy Hest’s Guess Who, Baby Duck (2004) and Deborah Blumenthal’s Aunt Claire’s Yellow Beehive Hair, illus by Mary GrandPré (2001). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-059851-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2006
As delectable as a book can get. Try it. You’ll really like it!
Mangia! Can one ever tire of Italian food?
Introducing luscious homemade cuisine! The text is almost an aria, expressed in rollicking verse that not only extols the deliciousness of various types of pasta, but also outlines their construction (from scratch, of course). A pale-skinned child welcomes relatives who arrive one by one from wonderful places that rhyme with their names (“Nonno Tito from Tahiti only eats our spaghettini”). Then everyone creates delicacies such as ravioli, lasagna, and rotini. What a large family! What intricate preparations! What ingredients! Even the pets have their favorites. Finally, the family sits down to the bountiful feast, but Mamma accidentally drops the dishes on her way to serve them. “BASTA!” shouts a frustrated Mamma. But all’s not lost. A final ring of the doorbell brings another very welcome visitor, someone who’s fortunately carrying boxes containing a substitute Italian repast. Readers will eat this up. Who wouldn’t love a book about yummy foods, told in such a delightfully bouncy manner? One quibble: There’s no guide to help kids learn to pronounce the food names accurately. Still, the sumptuous foods—long strands of pasta, leaves of basil—pop in the digitally rendered collage illustrations, and Demirağ captures the busy culinary activities of this tightknit, racially diverse family.
As delectable as a book can get. Try it. You’ll really like it! (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781534473638
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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