Stunning artwork, full of warmth and pizazz, presents a lovable heroine who will win hearts with her perseverance and humor.
For Little Kunoichi, ninja school is hard, but with practice, friendship, and humor, she flies high at the Island Festival.
Tucked away on a secret island, Little Kunoichi lives with her ninja family, attending a supersecret ninja girls’ school. But scaling cliffs and using nunchucks and throwing stars don’t come easy. Everything changes when she spies Chibi Samurai, a small boy with middling skills, practicing with great determination. Inspired, Little Kunoichi applies herself, and when the two meet, their dedication to shugyo (“training like crazy”) makes their friendship bloom. Together they prepare for the Island Festival, where they wow the crowd and grow in confidence (despite a lost ninja star or two). Ishida cleverly and drolly promotes the virtues of hard work, imagination, and play. There is much to intrigue both genders, from silly jokes and pink dragons to swordplay and cunning. Beautiful, vivid pops of color—at once both gentle and vibrant—fill the spreads. The lovely paint-on-paper illustrations have a winning honesty and whimsy. From the text to the artwork, everything about Little Kunoichi’s life and culture is made to feel special. This thoughtfulness extends to the backmatter, as a concluding page explains Japanese words and cultural references.
Stunning artwork, full of warmth and pizazz, presents a lovable heroine who will win hearts with her perseverance and humor. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-57061-954-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Lendroth brings the right ingredients, offering a tale that challenges gender stereotypes and showcases an intergenerational...
An exuberant young girl finds her match in taiko drumming.
A whirlwind of energy, Natsumi often hears the words, “Not so fast” or “hard” or “loud” from her family. When she worries her boisterous actions always lead to mistakes, her grandfather finds the perfect outlet: taiko. On stage, Natsumi pounds the large, barrel-shaped drums—their thundering boom an extension of her enthusiastic spirit. Like Kevin Henkes with his water pistol–toting Lilly, Lendroth offers a charming character who defies traditional gender associations. However, her choice to place this modern story in a “village” is interesting. Cultural festivals such as the one she describes are experienced by Japanese-Americans today, and the United States has a thriving taiko or kumidaiko scene, yet Americans do not typically refer to their small towns or rural locations as villages. Acknowledgement that the setting is in Japan in the tale’s initial setup would have been helpful, as it establishes an entirely different lens for readers. Digital art, made to look like marker drawings, are colored in a mostly pastel palette. Unfortunately, while the artist is capable of including more interest and detail in her illustrations, as in her Five Green and Speckled Frogs (2003), she fails to give these characters and setting the specificity she gave generic animals.
Lendroth brings the right ingredients, offering a tale that challenges gender stereotypes and showcases an intergenerational bond, but overall, it’s a disappointing execution to a promising start. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-17090-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance.
The beat is all around her when a girl takes a walk in the park with her mother.
On a lovely summer day, a young African-American girl in a bright pink sundress and matching sneakers sees, smells, sings, claps and snaps her fingers to an internal rhythm. As a boom box plays its song and a drummer taps his beat, neighborhood children join her in an energetic, pulsating dance culminating in a rousing musical parade. Schofield-Morrison’s brief text has a shout-it-out element as each spread resounds with a two-word phrase: “I shook a rhythm with my hips. /SHAKE SHAKE”; “I tapped the rhythm with my toes. / TIP TAP.” Morrison’s full-bleed, textured oil paintings capture the joy of a mother and daughter in an urban park surrounded by musicians, food vendors and many exuberant children. Read this aloud with music playing loudly—not in the background. Morrison is a Coretta Scott King/New Talent Award winner, and this is a fine debut for his wife in their first collaboration.
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-178-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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