It is all just too jumbled to succeed as a charming older-sibling book. (Picture book. 3-6)
An older sister prattles on to her newborn sibling about all the things to learn in the world.
In their first collaboration, Tsiang and Leng produced A Flock of Shoes (2010), an airy tale of a child’s attachment to an article of clothing. Unfortunately, this second story does not have the same whimsy or story arc. The narrator is an older sister, using a conversational voice to list the myriad skills the newborn sibling will have to master. The voice is unfortunately arrogant, albeit confessional, and has a manic quality about it. The scale of the sibling’s list of knowledge is enormous. It starts from learning how to eat and cry, through walking, talking, potty training, trouble with parents, punishments, going to bed and giving up the pacifier, and it ends at riding a bus and learning the alphabet. Leng’s illustrations are sketchy and appropriately toddler-active. Yet here, too, the images could benefit from a cohesive plan. Where did the older sister’s hand-made guide, seen at the beginning, go? How are the individual vignettes sequenced? Why is there a voice bubble around these words? The busyness of the whole keeps readers from forming an emotional attachment to the characters or the story.
It is all just too jumbled to succeed as a charming older-sibling book. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55451-359-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
A syrupy tribute to mothers that may please fans of the series.
Another creature is on the loose.
The long-running series continues its successful formula with this Hallmark card of a book, which features bright illustrations and catchy rhymes. This time, the mythical creature the racially diverse children set out to catch is an absent mom who does it all (lists of descriptors include the words banker, caregiver, nurse, doctor, driver, chef, housekeeper, teacher, entertainer, playmate, laundry service, problem solver, handywoman, cleaner, and alarm clock) but doesn’t seem to have a job outside the home and is inexplicably a dinosaur. As the children prepare gifts and a meal for her, the text becomes an ode to the skills the Mamasaurus possesses (“Day or night she’s always there. / She meets every wish and need”) and values she instills (“Sometimes life can mean hard work,” “kindness matters,” and “what counts is doing your best”). This well-intentioned selection veers into cliche generously sprinkled with saccharine but manages to redeem itself with its appreciation for mothers and all that they may do. Endpapers include a “to” and “from” page framed in a heart, as well as a page where young gift givers or recipients can draw a picture of their Mamasaurus.
A syrupy tribute to mothers that may please fans of the series. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781728274300
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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