Some of the small, important moments feel smaller than necessary, but the last scene is a tiny, perfect gem.
Little things matter.
Many classic children’s books are shaped around very small, very important moments, and at first Feder’s story might not seem to fit that pattern. This picture book is about a big life change: Hannah is leaving all her friends to move to a new neighborhood. Her grandmother promises her it will be “definitely some bitter but even more sweet.” The story is told through tiny, poignant details. Hannah sees everything she owns packed onto a big truck; she watches her home “disappear from sight” through the window of a car. These moments don’t always have the impact they should, and the final pages of the book feel almost anticlimactic: Hannah’s new neighbor Maya offers her some hot chocolate. And, in fact, the chocolate turns out to be bitter. But Hannah discovers that, when she adds sugar to the powder, it’s delicious. The last few lines of the book are poetic. Hannah tells her grandmother, “I thought it was only bitter here,” and when her grandmother asks if she’s found “the sweet,” Hannah says, “You can’t just find it. You have to add it yourself.” Nothing else in the book quite reaches that level of beauty, though Brooker’s illustrations are a marvel. Her collages seamlessly blend the most basic geometric shapes—circles for heads—with ultra-detailed photographs and are populated with mostly light-skinned characters. Hannah’s family is Jewish.
Some of the small, important moments feel smaller than necessary, but the last scene is a tiny, perfect gem. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55498-995-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts.
In this latest slice in the Food Group series, Humble Pie learns to stand up to a busy friend who’s taking advantage of his pal’s hard work on the sidelines.
Jake the Cake and Humble Pie are good friends. Where Pie is content to toil in the background, Jake happily shines in the spotlight. Alert readers will notice that Pie’s always right there, too, getting A-pluses and skiing expertly just behind—while also doing the support work that keeps every school and social project humming. “Fact: Nobody notices pie when there’s cake nearby!” When the two friends pair up for a science project, things begin well. But when the overcommitted Jake makes excuse after excuse, showing up late or not at all, a panicked Pie realizes that they won’t finish in time. When Jake finally shows up on the night before the project’s due, Pie courageously confronts him. “And for once, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.” The friends talk it out and collaborate through the night for the project’s successful presentation in class the next day. John and Oswald’s winning recipe—plentiful puns and delightful visual jokes—has yielded another treat here. The narration does skew didactic as it wraps up: “There’s nothing wrong with having a tough conversation, asking for help, or making sure you’re being treated fairly.” But it’s all good fun, in service of some gentle lessons about social-emotional development.
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780063469730
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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