A stilted attempt to put a twist on a time-honored tradition, elevated by charming visuals.
A South Asian girl named Raashi and her little brother, Tejas, eagerly await the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan.
On this day, sisters tie bracelets called rakhis to their brothers’ and male cousins’ wrists. At breakfast, Raashi wonders why only girls tie rakhis on boys. Her mother tells her that traditionally “sisters tied rakhis on their brothers as a symbol to protect them as they went into the world. Back then, they didn’t think girls should be doing as much as boys.” Raashi doesn’t think this is fair, since she has plenty of aspirations herself, and she tells Tejas, “You should look out for me, too!” Later, at the festival, when Tejas gets stuck in a tree, Raashi comes to his rescue. A grateful Tejas wants to tie a rakhi to Raashi’s wrist, to protect her as she protected him. They decide to start a new tradition in which boys and girls can give their siblings and cousins rakhis. Though the premise—putting a gender-inclusive spin on a beloved custom—will appeal to many, the writing is often stiff and may leave readers with the misleading impression that rakhis are meant to protect boys as they venture out into the world. In fact, the bracelets traditionally symbolize boys’ willingness to safeguard their female relatives. Still, the vivid illustrations fairly explode with color and detail, creating a fun backdrop; characters are depicted with a variety of brown skin tones.
A stilted attempt to put a twist on a time-honored tradition, elevated by charming visuals. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593707265
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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