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THE KITCHEN TALKS

Name: THE KITCHEN TALKS
Author: Shirley Mozelle
ISBN: 0-8050-7143-1

by Shirley Mozelle & illustrated by Petra Mathers ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2006

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The inanimate denizens of the kitchen nab the limelight in this somewhat uneven, amusingly illustrated collection of 20 short poems. Much of the verse employs personification—the refrigerator, pot holder and rolling pin drolly narrate their own poems. In others, the narrative voice becomes oddly anonymous, as in the two-line poem “Freezer”: “Cold as ice / But no goose bumps.” Tired initial simile aside, the question of goose bumps seems an odd introduction in a collection focused on objects. Mathers’s light touch redeems this same double spread with a funny, sneak-peek interior: A fish juggles lima beans atop a carton of strawberry ice cream, near a box of “Hungry Dude” pizza. Some poems stand out for their playful metaphors and puns: “Toaster” is “Jack-in-the-box / For bread”; “Paper Towels” enjoins “ . . . Don’t stop me now—I’m on a roll.” Mozelle brings the precision demanded by the short form to many, but not all, of these poems. Mathers’s cheerfully quirky watercolors notwithstanding, this collection neither falls flat nor rises above. (Poetry. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-8050-7143-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
ZACK'S ALLIGATOR AND THE FIRST SNOW
by Shirley Mozelle & illustrated by James Watts

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEAR UPSTAIRS
by Shirley Mozelle & illustrated by Doug Cushman

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THE DUCK CAN'T SLEEP

by E.B. White ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2026

Sleepers awake. An uncommonly pleasing consideration of wakeful wanderings.

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Midnight insomnia meets wide-awake waterfowl when an old poem appears in a new form.

On a bit of a poem-to-picture-book tear since she illustrated poet Mary Oliver’s Goldfinches (2026), artist Sweet once more plucks verse from the past. This time E.B. White’s 1928 perambulation poem “Natura in Urbe” is the star of the show. Inspired by his sleepless nights spent walking around Central Park, the poem begins, “While midnight clung to every shore, / I walked me round the reservoir.” On this ramble, the subject encounters a duck swimming serenely at the same late hour. White’s delicious language infuses this simple encounter with wonder as he describes the fowl’s “negligible wake” and asks if he is pondering problems of his own. “A midnight sail to clear his vision / And help him reach some duck decision.” Sweet has a true talent for presenting poems that were never originally intended for children as entirely accessible, even enticing, to young readers. Relying on her signature mixed-media collage style, she incorporates maps of stars and Central Park, alongside painted scenes depicting both nighttime in the city and the nocturnal beauty of nature. The book includes a note from White’s granddaughter Martha discussing her grandfather’s love of nature and offering background on the poem.

Sleepers awake. An uncommonly pleasing consideration of wakeful wanderings. (Picture book/poetry. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026

ISBN: 9780063304291

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
SOME PIG!
by E.B. White & illustrated by Maggie Kneen

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN
by E.B. White illustrated by Fred Marcellino

- BOOK REVIEW
CHARLOTTE'S WEB
by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams

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ALL THE COLORS OF THE EARTH

by Sheila Hamanaka ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1994

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This heavily earnest celebration of multi-ethnicity combines full-bleed paintings of smiling children, viewed through a golden haze dancing, playing, planting seedlings, and the like, with a hyperbolic, disconnected text—``Dark as leopard spots, light as sand,/Children buzz with laughter that kisses our land...''— printed in wavy lines. Literal-minded readers may have trouble with the author's premise, that ``Children come in all the colors of the earth and sky and sea'' (green? blue?), and most of the children here, though of diverse and mixed racial ancestry, wear shorts and T-shirts and seem to be about the same age. Hamanaka has chosen a worthy theme, but she develops it without the humor or imagination that animates her Screen of Frogs (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)