With a mixture of pride, affection, and just an occasional saving flash of irritation, Alfie rattles on about his relationship with his adorable, adoring, younger sibling. Little Annie Rose loves games of peek-a-boo, sometimes prefers playing with her older brother’s friends and toys over her own, still sleeps in a crib, and may not be quite up to helping Dad build sandcastles on the beach, but makes “quite good” sand pies. Viewed at child’s-eye level, the naturalistically painted pair is seen at home and away, alone and with friends, happily absorbed in living their lives. Though Annie Rose has a generally sunny disposition, when she does fall into a bad mood, “I’m the only person who can cheer her up,” Alfie avers, “because she’s my little sister, and I’m her big brother, and we’ll go on being that forever . . . even until we’re grown up.” Conveying a warm feeling of domestic harmony, and modeling an ideal but not unrealistic closeness, this will please fans of Frieda Wishinsky’s Oonga Boonga (reissued 1998, with illus by Carol Thompson), Marc Brown’s tales of Arthur and D.W., and the like. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7636-1959-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While the amusing scenario may prove to be more a nostalgia trip for adult readers than something today’s kids will...
Weekly Sunday visits from their two aunts and one uncle are so disagreeable that three children take steps to alter the atmosphere through some harmlessly exaggerated imitation.
Each Sunday afternoon the family guests arrive, heavily plop themselves on the living room furniture, and make negative, complaining and resigned statements. “Oy,” says Aunt Essy. “Feh,” says Aunt Chanah. “So?” says Uncle Sam. “That was all they ever said!” Despite the children’s parents’ attempts to make pleasant conversation or the children’s enthusiastic play-acting performed for the guests, the reaction is always the same uncongenial three words. Ink-and-watercolor illustrations depict Essy, Chanah and Sam with unflattering caricatures of stereotypical adult Jewish characters, with clownishly large noses, slouchy, overweight bodies and unsmiling faces. In exasperation, the children each take a role and comically mimic their aunts’ and uncle’s behavior, forcing laughter and recognition. This mishpocheh now redeems itself with a newfound willingness to tell family stories and loving childhood memories; the palette here modulates from muted tones to bright, sunny colors.
While the amusing scenario may prove to be more a nostalgia trip for adult readers than something today’s kids will immediately recognize, they will appreciate the overall sentiment even if they miss the Yiddish essence. Nu? (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55498-148-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Would that all sib relationships were so harmonious
Four more emergent-reader episodes featuring little Annie, her “big, big brother,” Simon, and bucketloads of sibling togetherness.
O’Neill opens with a thematic link to Annie and Simon (2008). Simon (still) has trouble telling Annie’s drawings of a crayfish and a dragonfly apart but answers her skeptical response to his claim that frogs have knees (“Oh, Simon. Tee-hee. Tee-hee. Tee-hee-hee”) with nature facts until she admiringly asks him if he knows everything. “Well,” says Simon, “I hate to brag.” In subsequent episodes, Simon’s sneeze unleashes a patiently borne flood of little-sister TLC; Annie’s efforts to get her dog Hazel to purr end abruptly when she sees the neighbor’s cat stroll by with a mouse in his mouth; and the sudden disappearance of a wagonload of horse chestnuts left on the porch sparks a bit of detective work. In the author’s informal, loosely brushed watercolors, the gangly figures fit comfortably in outdoorsy suburban and cozy domestic settings. Their mutual attachment is clearly expressed in gestures, expressions, eye contact and, in the final scene, a tender smooch on the head by Simon: “You know,” he says, “you’re my favorite little sister.” “I know,” says Annie.
Would that all sib relationships were so harmonious . (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4921-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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