Readers will be thrilled with the ending—Maizes sets the stage for an encore for Livi, who suddenly sees that baths aren’t...
A young girl reluctant to quit her playing for the “boredom” of the bath imagines all sorts of adventures on her way to the tub.
As a snake, Livi slithers off the couch. Passing her blocks, she pictures the statue she will build. She does a cartwheel, suddenly a fantastic gymnast. Her sister’s music incites an impromptu show. Livi’s guinea pigs remind her that she needs to plan a new caper to take over the world, with their help, of course. And so it continues, all the way to the tub. Meanwhile, speech bubbles on the far–right-hand side of each spread allow readers to track Livi’s mother’s exasperation as she waits for her tyke to finally arrive. The phrases she uses are sure to be familiar to readers. Paraskevas’ brightly colored digital illustrations reveal a plucky girl with lots of personality. Livi may be small, but she knows what she wants, and her determination is to be admired, especially when her real-life skills don’t quite measure up to those of the Livi in her imagination. Pair this one with Christine Anderson and Steven Salerno’s Bedtime! (2005) to see what happens when another child doesn’t stop playing when she is supposed to be getting in the tub.
Readers will be thrilled with the ending—Maizes sets the stage for an encore for Livi, who suddenly sees that baths aren’t so boring after all: “I am a shark…” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8027-2364-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Not a first pick.
A paean to sisterhood by the former first daughters.
Although the co-authors are twins, their rhyming, first-person text is in the voice of a girl praying for a baby sister: “Please make her kind, with an enormous heart, / clever too, and very smart.” Her wishes are prompted by her observations of other sisters, whom the accompanying cartoon art depicts as diverse pairs of girls, including two brown-skinned children with wavy brown hair and a white-appearing girl holding the hand of a small child who appears black, with dark skin and afro-puffs. The narrator is blonde with light skin, and her sister is born with a similar complexion but reddish-brown hair. The big sister is chagrined to realize that having a baby sister isn’t all she’d expected, but frustration abates when she reflects on her earlier prayer and thinks, “If kindness was what I was asking of you, / I needed to be kind and patient, too.” As the baby grows, the sisters achieve the loving, close bond the narrator prayed for. While the core sentiment might well move readers, the bland art stops short of expanding or enriching the text, and the writing both falters in cadence and descends into cliché, as in lines reading “And with time…we found a rhythm, your hand locked in mine. / We sang duets and danced in rain and sunshine.”
Not a first pick. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-53478-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
An exuberant celebration of family.
A mixed-race child reflects on how much better Mom's and Dad’s lives are “now that I’m here.”
The irrepressible (“HA! HA! HA!”) narrator of this story—a dark-haired, pink-skinned, wide-eyed child—paints a vivid picture of daily life then and now. Readers will appreciate the stark contrasts drawn in two-page spreads (see: Mom and Dad sleeping peacefully with a rotund gray pug; now see: Mom, Dad, and dog fighting for space in a rumpled bed awash with toys, a gleeful child draped over them all). Meshon’s use of color, juxtaposing blues and greens for life then and reds and oranges for life now, further conveys the drastic changes wrought by the child. Bold, hand-lettered, capitalized text adds clarity and humor. It doesn’t always work: It may not be entirely clear to readers why Mom and Dad no longer buy lunch (but their bento boxes do look “way better”!), and some of the pre-child pages still feel a bit busy. The chaotic love and joy of this family shine through, though, and the depiction of the family’s blended culture is natural and seamless. Dad, with pale skin, light brown hair, and his croissant, espresso, and spaghetti, reads as white; Mom, with light skin, black hair, and her natto, matcha, and ramen, appears to be Japanese.
An exuberant celebration of family. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2936-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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