A heartfelt story of siblings’ unconditional love.
Two animal siblings are both alike and different.
Two unnamed anthropomorphic characters with yellow skin, pointy triangle ears, and doglike snouts are the main characters of the story. One narrates, describing “my sister” in the opening pages as not being able to use words “but she says a lot!” The narrator describes their differences, each one followed by something that unites them. For example, though they like different foods, they finish eating at the same time. While the sister enjoys watching TV and the narrator likes listening to music, the following double-page spread depicts the two dancing together. Though it is not explicitly stated, readers may place the sister on the autism spectrum, as illustrated by her occasional rudeness to their grandmother, attendance at a different school from the narrator, and aversion to hugs. Rather than letting their differences drive them apart, the narrator is a caring and understanding sibling, leaving the sister alone when she needs it and comforting her when she’s upset. The writing is concise and easy to read, with a nice flow that is complemented by the colorful and expressive cartoon illustrations. The text is hand-lettered, syncing nicely with the narrator’s childlike tone. By using anthropomorphic animals instead of humans, however, Robbins misses the opportunity to add to the too-few depictions of racially diverse children with disabilities.
A heartfelt story of siblings’ unconditional love. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5542-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though it looks like a book for longed-for children, it’s really for their parents.
A poetic ode to women who became mothers despite the challenges they faced.
Whether navigating the roughest seas, crossing the hottest deserts, or pushing through painful brambles, the mothers in this book know their long, hard journeys were worth the effort. There might have been failure and doubt, but now that it’s all over, they know they’d “do it all over again. For you.” First-person narration expresses in metaphor the extraordinary lengths some mothers will go to achieve their dream of holding a child in their arms. Sentimental and flowery, the text is broad enough to apply to the journeys of many mothers—even though the text is gender neutral, the illustrations clearly center the mother’s experience. At times another figure, often male-presenting, is shown alongside a mother. Soft, jewel-toned illustrations peppered with textures depict families with a variety of skin tones and hair colors/textures. The assortment of mothers shown demonstrates the universality of the message, but it also contributes to the absence of a strong visual throughline. In the concluding author’s note, Serhant shares her personal struggle to conceive her child, which included fertility treatments and IVF. Ultimately, although the sentiment is lovely, the message is too abstract to be understood by children and will be better received and appreciated by parents.
Though it looks like a book for longed-for children, it’s really for their parents. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-17388-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A particularly soppy, sloppy addition to an already-overstuffed genre.
A bear cub gets a load of lyrical loving from a lumbering parent in this nature walk.
Expressed in stumbling rhyme—“I love you more than trees / love to change with every season. / I love you more than anything. / I cannot name just one reason”—Benson’s perfervid sentiments accompany scenes of bear and cub strolling through stands of birch, splashing into a river to watch (just watch) fish, and, in a final moonlit scene, cuddling beneath starry skies. Foxes, otters, and other animal parents and offspring, likewise adoring, make foreground cameos along the way in Lambert’s neatly composed paper-collage–style illustrations. Since the bears are obvious stand-ins for humans (the cub even points at things and in most views is posed on two legs), the gender ambiguity in both writing and art allow human readers some latitude in drawing personal connections, but that’s not enough to distinguish this uninspired effort among the teeming swarm of “I Love You This Much!” titles.
A particularly soppy, sloppy addition to an already-overstuffed genre. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68010-022-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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