A sweet, if not particularly memorable adventure in perspective.
How can a body get attention while hanging upside down?
He's a cute gray bat with a mischievous smile, but he goes mostly unnoticed by visitors. (There is one little boy in a blue sweater who points to him and to whom Batty says, "Hello," but he is the lone exception.) So, Batty seeks friends among the other animals. The penguins are having fun in their pool, but Batty can't stand the taste of fish. The gorillas look friendly, but they keep checking him for fleas. The lions seem nice and relaxed, but Batty finds he doesn't like lazing in the hot sun for so long. Disappointed but hopeful, he next tries the aviary, where the creatures are all very beautiful. But up close, those birds are far too noisy. Feeling sad and lonely, Batty flies back to his home. And there, he finds a big surprise: All the animals he has gone to visit are there waiting for him—or at least one of each—including the boy in the blue sweater. And they're all hanging upside down, like bats. Dyer's story and prose feel generic, but her pencil-and-pastel illustrations, stylish, economical and slyly humorous, are memorable. The cleverest aspect of all is that several of the book's illustrations, as well as the back cover and flyleaf, are upside down, just like Batty.
A sweet, if not particularly memorable adventure in perspective. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84780-084-8
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful.
Life buzzes in a community garden.
Surrounded by apartment buildings, this city garden gets plenty of human attention, but the book’s stars are the plants and insects. The opening spread shows a black child in a striped shirt sitting in a top-story window; the nearby trees and garden below reveal the beginnings of greenery that signal springtime. From that high-up view, the garden looks quiet—but it’s not. “Sleepy slugs / and garden snails / leave behind their silver trails. / Frantic teams of busy ants / scramble up the stems of plants”; and “In the earth / a single seed / sits beside a millipede. / Worms and termites / dig and toil / moving through the garden soil.” Sicuro zooms in too, showing a robin taller than a half-page; later, close-ups foreground flowers, leaves, and bugs while people (children and adults, a multiracial group) are crucial but secondary, sometimes visible only as feet. Watercolor illustrations with ink and charcoal highlights create a soft, warm, horticulturally damp environment. Scale and perspective are more stylized than literal. McCanna’s superb scansion never misses, incorporating lists of insects and plants (“Lacewings, gnats, / mosquitos, spiders, / dragonflies, and water striders / live among the cattail reeds, / lily pads, and waterweeds”) with description (“Sunlight warms the morning air. / Dewdrops shimmer / here and there”). Readers see more than gardeners do, such as rabbits stealing carrots and lettuce from garden boxes.
Like its subject: full of bustling life yet peaceful. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1797-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
A nursery charmer.
A pink-cheeked version of a song most everyone knows, with new verses highlighting cozy animal dyads across the world.
The bright yellow and red owlet with its parent opens the lullaby with the verse we all know. Next a papa deer and fawn in the forest, a whale and calf in the sea, a kangaroo and joey in the outback, vulture and chick and so on, each filling a two-page spread. The verse mirrors the pictures: “Glisten, glisten, little star, / how I wonder what you are. / Up above the grassy plain …” shows a papa lion and cub, and on the next spread—“…through the warm, wet jungle rain”—a pair of rosy-cheeked monkeys. The five-pointed, butter-gold star is prominently visible on every spread. Color and line are thick and bold, while all of the animals, from polar bears to pussy cats, have button eyes and the suggestion of human smiles. The final verse (“Twinkle over towns and trees, / fields and farms, / Lakes and seas”) shows just such a vista, with lollipop trees, a building-block city and a little red lighthouse. The concluding spread, “Twinkle, twinkle, up above … // … for me and for / the one I love” pictures that bright star on one page facing a golden-haired mother and child. The music for this venerable tune is on the back endpaper.
A nursery charmer. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2519-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
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