A little thin but the lovely art rewards lingerers.
A four-season round, observed in stylized scenes and 20 haiku-like poems.
Pappa is loose with her syllable count but otherwise follows the form’s conventional antecedents as she reflects on a young child’s outdoor encounters and activities: “Beautiful day! / Teach me, too, how to fly, / mother swallow.” Appealing though the spare and precise poetry may be, younger audiences will likely be more strongly drawn by the serene, harmonious pictures. As in her eye-catching illustrations for Roxane Marie Galliez’s Thank You, Miyuki (2020), Ratanavanh sets an Asian-presenting protagonist with pink cheeks against likewise stylized, mostly natural, flat backdrops constructed using delicately transparent hues and bright Japanese washi patterns. A paper boat and a flight of origami “wild geese” add further atmospheric notes. Though the child climbs a ladder in one scene to color in a rainbow and in another hangs little dolls in a Christmas tree, in general they are small enough to peer from a poppy at an equally tiny spring lamb, sit on a dahlia with a pair of “happy snails” in autumn, and, in one droll summer scene, make a lazy comment about the grasshopper on the nose of a mountainous, napping dog—oblivious to the comparatively giant butterfly perched on their own.
A little thin but the lovely art rewards lingerers. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951836-14-6
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Cameron + Company
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Amusing, yes. Useful for reading practice, yes, but not necessarily guaranteed to make new readers the “read-i-est.” (Early...
Elephant and Piggie make an appearance to introduce the first in their new series, an egalitarian introduction to superlatives.
Each one of seven blades of talking grass—of a total of eight—discovers that it is superb at something: it’s tallest, curliest, silliest, and so forth. The humor aims to appeal to a broad spectrum. It is slightly disturbing that one being eaten by purple bugs is proud of being the crunchiest, but that will certainly appeal to a slice of the audience. The eighth blade of grass is grappling with a philosophical identity crisis; its name is Walt, a sly reference to Whitman's Leaves of Grass that will go right over the heads of beginning readers but may amuse astute parents or teachers. Tension builds with the approach of a lawn mower; the blades of grass lose their unique features when they are trimmed to equal heights. Mercifully, they are chopped off right above the eyes and can continue their silly banter. Departing from the image of a Whitman-esque free spirit, Walt now discovers he is the neatest. Lots of speech bubbles, repetition, and clear layout make this entry a useful addition to lessons on adjectives and superlatives while delivering a not-so-subtle message that everyone is good at something. Elephant and Piggie's final assertion that “this book is the FUNNIEST” doesn't necessarily make it so, however.
Amusing, yes. Useful for reading practice, yes, but not necessarily guaranteed to make new readers the “read-i-est.” (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2635-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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