A joyous, heartwarming, sweet—and essential—update.
Uncle Bobby is getting married—but his niece Chloe doesn’t know if that is a good idea.
When Uncle Bobby announces at the first picnic of the summer that he and “his friend, Jamie,” are getting married, everyone is happy except Chloe. When she expresses her concern to her mother, Mom says she should talk to Uncle Bobby, who reassures Chloe that they will still have plenty of fun together—and then sets out to prove it. Bobby and Jamie take Chloe to the ballet and joke afterward at a soda shop. They go sailing, and Jamie is the first to jump in when Chloe tumbles out of the boat. Roasting marshmallows over a campfire, Chloe happily says, “I wish both of you were my uncles”—and of course they tell her she will get that wish. Flower girl Chloe helps out at the wedding, and they all dance the night away. Brannen reworks the text of her out-of-print and oft-challenged 2008 title to good effect. The tale of a child’s uncertainty and jealousy at her uncle’s wedding someone who just happens to be another man and the family’s carefree celebration of that union remains essentially the same. Soto’s bright, friendly cartoons, however, depict a diverse human cast—Uncle Bobby presents White and Jamie presents Black—representing a quantum leap forward over the original’s anthropomorphic guinea pigs. Chloe has light beige skin; her mother presents White, and her father’s skin is a shade darker than Chloe's.
A joyous, heartwarming, sweet—and essential—update. (Picture book. 2-9)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4998-1008-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
This beautiful story grasps diversity, exploring resilience, love, friendship, and the meaning of home.
When Salma and her mom move from the refugee camp to Canada, they seem to leave joy behind with Papa.
Back in the camp, her mom giggled with her friends all the time, but now, in Vancouver, she hardly laughs at all. They both miss Papa and hope he’ll join them soon. Salma and her mom live in the Welcome Center with other newcomers. When she shares her quest to make Mama laugh with one of the helpers, Nancy suggests that Salma draw her good memories for inspiration. As Salma illustrates her home in Damascus and her parents eating a dish of foul shami, she has an idea! “I think Mama misses Syrian food….I want to make her foul shami.” However, she doesn’t know the recipe, let alone the English words for any of the needed vegetables. Setting many vignettes in an eight-pointed star-shaped frame, Bron fills the pages with careful detail and glimpses of different cultures and places, including Vancouver. At the Welcome Center, Salma and readers meet children from Egypt, India, and Venezuela; a translator from Jordan; a gay couple from Lebanon; and others from Canada, Somalia, and Iran. With creativity and help from friends, Salma moves ahead with her plan, but so many things go wrong. The story ends with a lovely surprise and, of course, a big laugh from Mama.
This beautiful story grasps diversity, exploring resilience, love, friendship, and the meaning of home. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77321-375-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Sure to soothe anyone who’s ever fretted about what’s out there in the dark.
In this follow-up to Wolfboy (2021), an innovative art technique jazzes up a familiar narrative.
After a long night of playing, Wolfboy and his rabbit friends head home. They hope to arrive before moonset, so Wolfboy advises that they use a shortcut “through the lair of the GRUMBLE MONSTER.” As the title suggests, Wolfboy is the one scared by this plan, not the rabbits. Harkness uses perspective to make Wolfboy and the rabbits seem very small as they enter the forest. Wolfboy thinks he sees the monster lurking behind trees, but the rabbits reassure him otherwise (those “claws” are just branches, and that “tail” is just a bramble vine). Readers, however, will notice parts of the monster’s large body in the foregrounds of the illustrations, unseen by the characters. The pacing recalls Julia Danielson and Axel Scheffler’s The Gruffalo, as the monster is revealed bit by bit, and when Wolfboy and the rabbits finally meet him, he’s not so scary after all. This twist brings to mind stories like Rachel Bright’s Love Monster (2012) or even Andrew Clement and Yoshi’s Big Al (1991), but the distinctive artwork sets Harkness’ picture book apart. The Claymation-like illustrations, which Harkness explains in a note he created using a virtual-reality headset, sculpting each page “in much the same way I would sculpt with real clay,” have a 3-D effect, like stills from stop-motion animation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sure to soothe anyone who’s ever fretted about what’s out there in the dark. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0445-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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