Encouraging and kind.
Percy adjusts to his new home by opening himself to nature.
The first of the book’s whimsical, exclusively double-paged spreads opens with the text “Percy’s old house was perfect. There was always something to do, and always someone to do it with.” Percy’s former home is an immaculately clean city, portrayed with candy-confection colors and populated by a diverse group of active, happy citizens. Aided by Percy’s image on the cover, readers can spot Percy, a school-age boy with brown skin and a thatch of straight brown hair, upstairs with a friend, inside one of the buildings. Soon it is revealed that Percy’s new home has a large, sprawling yard with a good-sized playhouse toward the back. There are meadows and mountains. A light-skinned girl and her dog occasionally appear in the distance. It takes a short amount of time for Percy and his cat to start exploring the surroundings and to start collecting and recording. The text continues with short, generalized statements about new concepts Percy learns as he continues his investigations. What he finds and draws becomes, in the backyard playhouse, the titular museum. A gentle sweetness pervades the book, which comes full circle in the concluding spread. The art and text—and the lack of adult interventions—offer relief and empowerment to children facing a new environment and a calming, quiet read to those who are not. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.4-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 54.8% of actual size.)
Encouraging and kind. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77306-252-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A disappointing follow-up.
Inventor Izzy Gizmo is back in this sequel to her eponymous debut (2017).
While busily inventing one day, Izzy receives an invitation from the Genius Guild to their annual convention. Though Izzy’s “inventions…don’t always work,” Grandpa (apparently her sole caregiver) encourages her to go. The next day they undertake a long journey “over fields, hills, and waves” and “mile after mile” to isolated Technoff Isle. There, Izzy finds she must compete against four other kids to create the most impressive machine. The colorful, detail-rich illustrations chronicle how poor Izzy is thwarted at every turn by Abi von Lavish, a Veruca Salt–esque character who takes all the supplies for herself. But when Abi abandons her project, Izzy salvages the pieces and decides to take Grandpa’s advice to create a machine that “can really be put to good use.” A frustrated Izzy’s impatience with a friend almost foils her chance at the prize, but all’s well that ends well. There’s much to like: Brown-skinned inventor girl Izzy is an appealing character, it’s great to see a nurturing brown-skinned male caregiver, the idea of an “Invention Convention” is fun, and a sustainable-energy invention is laudable. However, these elements don’t make up for rhymes that often feel forced and a lackluster story.
A disappointing follow-up. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68263-164-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...
Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.
Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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