Misses the magic that the Kansas community brought to the original forest.
Frampton, the artist behind the real-life Firefly Forest in the woods of Kansas, brings her vision to readers all over with this book.
Tiny tea sets on toadstools, illuminated fairy cottages that beckon readers in, and glimpses of interiors, all of it dwarfed by real flowers and a frog: Heath’s digital artwork will be the main draw here, the charming details sure to give children ideas for crafting fairy houses, doors, and furniture of their own. Soft focus, golden light, and changes in perspective all lead readers into this world. Fairies are never mentioned; instead, “magical beings” are referenced, and the book alternates between talking about them in the third person and their addressing readers directly: “You’ve not been forgotten, is what they say. / We heard you calling and came right away. / We’re here to help you and happy to stay. // We love you… / We’ll lift you… // You’ll find your way.” Among the fireflies, readers are told, you will find “whatever you need,” and in turn, you need to “Show kindness and love in all that you do.” The text is maddeningly oblique throughout, its generic exhortations and promises practically irrelevant, and Frampton’s rhymes and rhythms are sometimes off, resulting in sometimes-tortured syntax. The target audience of children who believe in this sort of woods magic will be too young to gather much meaning, inspiration, or aid from these verses.
Misses the magic that the Kansas community brought to the original forest. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-12263-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors.
In this collaboration from mother/daughter duo Corrigan and Corrigan Lichty, a youngster longs to quit the soccer team so she can continue dreaming up more inventions.
Marianne, a snazzily dressed young maker with tan skin, polka-dot glasses, and reddish-brown hair in two buns, feels out of place on the pitch. Her soccer-loving dad signed her up for the team, but she’d much rather be home tinkering and creating. One day she feigns illness to get out of practice (relying on a trick she learned from the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and uses her newfound time to create a flying machine made from bath towels, umbrellas, cans, and more. Eventually, her dad catches wind of her deception, and she tells him she prefers inventing to playing soccer. Immediately supportive, he plops a pot on his head and becomes Marianne’s tinkering apprentice. Told in lilting rhymes, the story resolves its conflicts rather speedily (Marianne confesses to hating soccer in one swift line). Though the text is wordy at times, it’s quite jaunty, and adults (and retro-loving kids) will chuckle at the ’80s references, from the Ferris Bueller and Dirty Dancing movie posters in Marianne’s room to the name of her dog, Patrick Swayze. True to Marianne’s creative nature, Sweetland surrounds her with lots of clutter and scraps, as well as plenty of bits and bobs. One never knows where inspiration will strike next.
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593206096
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A cute, zany retelling.
When inventor’s block strikes, Goldilocks leaves her house open to some benevolent intruders.
In this rhyming reversal of the classic English fairy tale, it’s pale, pink-cheeked, straw-blond Goldilocks who owns a home, where her bed, chair, and porridge are all set up the way she likes them. As an inventor, she works in the style of Rube Goldberg—more cartoonish than practical—making “gadgets that could zip your coat / and tie your tennis shoes. / Tools that help you seek and find / whatever you might lose.” Illustrations of the last doodad, for example, show a hat with attached flashlight, magnifying glass, and teeny satellite dish. Bright primary colors, simple shapes, and carefree lines provide a lighthearted silliness well-matched with the rhyme, so that when three passing brown bears walk into Goldilocks’ empty home, there’s no guile involved. “We truly couldn’t help ourselves,” they claim; “we’re three bear engineers!” They add wheels to her chair, honey to her porridge, and new gears to her self-rocking bed. The “innovations” are just caricatures of various everyday devices, but a returning Goldilocks is still delighted to discover them, and she invites the bears back to “make the next big thing.” There’s not much under the surface of this teamwork story (aside from the minor home invasion), but it’s an amusing read-aloud and good for a game of spot-the-screwdriver.
A cute, zany retelling. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-2997-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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