Where is Heidi hiding? This single question forms the premise for a goldfish game of hide-and-seek. The seeker is an unnamed friend and fellow goldfish who asks the question of Miss Frog, Mr. Octopus, Doctor Angler, and others who inhabit the fishbowl universe. But Heidi is not to be found in this watery world. When the fish jumps out to have a look around, it finds that danger lurks outside the fishbowl in the form of Mr. Cat. As a distraction, the fish does a little dance and gets away, splashing into Heidi's path in a now uncluttered two-fish bowl, earlier shown profuse with underwater flora and fish, not to mention household items. The ending shortchanges its audience: Heidi appears out of nowhere, without an explanation for her previous whereabouts, nor visual clues for those preschool sleuths who may have wanted to join the search. It's a storyline that lacks the splash readers expect from Kitamura (Duck Is Dirty, 1996, etc.). (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-374-32707-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1997
The author of A Piece of String is a Wonderful Thing (1993) and a greeting-card illustrator take a cautious walk down a jungle path: ``When you go into the jungle, go carefully. It's a wild place. In every shadow there could be a snake curled quietly.... You'll never see them, they're too wild and sly. Wild things never look you in the eye.'' Epps's simply drawn oils convey little of this feeling however; two children walk through a spacious, gardenlike landscape festooned with smiling animals ``hiding'' in plain sight—and making plenty of eye contact with the viewer. This poor match between text and pictures won't take readers nearly as deep into the ``wild place'' as Jane Yolen's Welcome to the Green House (1993). (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-56402-423-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
When Erin visits the attic of her grandfather's country house, she is enchanted by the discovery of an old doll packed in a brass-hinged wooden box. Her grandfather allows her to keep it when she promises to take good care of the precious find. But late at night, Erin is awakened by the wind and drawn out of the house on a mysterious, sea-bound adventure, with the doll tucked safely under her arm. Alone at sea, she meets another little girl and learns the name and history of the beautiful doll. The highly colored, expressionistic illustrations are sure to dazzle, although a story that appears to encourage solo midnight boat trips may be one that will give parents pause. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-79585-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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