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WHERE DO I END AND YOU BEGIN?

Name: WHERE DO I END AND YOU BEGIN?
Author: Shulamith Oppenheim
ISBN: 978-1-56846-274-5

by Shulamith Oppenheim ; illustrated by Monique Felix ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2015

An elegant conversation starter to a not-so-simple question.

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From animals to plants, sky to sea, people to people, we’re all connected.

In rhythmic text that flows from one page to the next, Oppenheim asks the titular question, “Where do I end and you begin?” The question is repeated from cat to tail to shell to snail; from branch to tree to sky to sea; from smell to flower to rose to bower; from jump to rope to hill to slope. Emphasizing and extending the simple text, the illustrations also flow from one page to the next, starting with the jacket cover, on which both title and a cat begin on the outside and end on the inside jacket flaps. In warm and luminous watercolors that stand out from the white background, Felix goes beyond the text to add details that invite careful readers to look and then look again. Does the cat on the cover make several appearances? Are the children on the branch a foreshadowing of the children at the end? How many more connections can be made? Between the smell and the flower, Felix adds a bear and honey, for example. And see how a hill becomes a camel. It all ends with a hug.

An elegant conversation starter to a not-so-simple question. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-56846-274-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S POETRY

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THE SEA KING
by Jane Yolen & Shulamith Oppenheim & illustrated by Stefan Czernecki

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HUNDREDTH NAME
by Shulamith Oppenheim & illustrated by Michael Hays

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TOUCH THE EARTH

From the Julian Lennon White Feather Flier Adventure series , Vol. 1

by Julian Lennon with Bart Davis ; illustrated by Smiljana Coh ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2017

“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so...

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A pro bono Twinkie of a book invites readers to fly off in a magic plane to bring clean water to our planet’s oceans, deserts, and brown children.

Following a confusingly phrased suggestion beneath a soft-focus world map to “touch the Earth. Now touch where you live,” a shake of the volume transforms it into a plane with eyes and feathered wings that flies with the press of a flat, gray “button” painted onto the page. Pressing like buttons along the journey releases a gush of fresh water from the ground—and later, illogically, provides a filtration device that changes water “from yucky to clean”—for thirsty groups of smiling, brown-skinned people. At other stops, a tap on the button will “help irrigate the desert,” and touching floating bottles and other debris in the ocean supposedly makes it all disappear so the fish can return. The 20 children Coh places on a globe toward the end are varied of skin tone, but three of the four young saviors she plants in the flier’s cockpit as audience stand-ins are white. The closing poem isn’t so openly parochial, though it seldom rises above vague feel-good sentiments: “Love the Earth, the moon and sun. / All the children can be one.”

“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so easy to clean the place up and give everyone a drink? (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: April 11, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5107-2083-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sky Pony Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
HEAL THE EARTH
by Julian Lennon & Bart Davis ; illustrated by Smiljana Coh

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MAXINE AND THE GREATEST GARDEN EVER

by Ruth Spiro ; illustrated by Holly Hatam ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 2021

Kids will enjoy the quirky visuals while appreciating the creative relationship of these two companions.

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Two friends strengthen their bond when their gardening project needs more ingenuity than originally anticipated.

Maxine, a science-oriented little White girl with a pet goldfish, loves to read and make constructive gadgets. Her friend Leo, a little Black boy, also likes making things, though from an artistic perspective. Together they decide to carefully design a garden. Maxine creates a practical blueprint while Leo draws a colorful diagram. Both plans allow them to plot, dig, and plant a beautiful and expansive space that includes a pond for Milton, Maxine’s pet fish. After their produce begins to sprout, however, some unwanted visitors slink in to ravage the fruits of all their hard work. Oh, no—now they need a new idea to keep those critters away. An average scarecrow doesn’t do the trick, so the kids get to work and build a “critter-creeping, laser-tripping, disco-ball-blinking, tuba-tooting… / SUPER SPECTACULAR SCARECROW!” But it only makes things worse by loudly disturbing everyone but their animal invaders. Initial disappointment and failure lead to blame and argument and then remorse and apologies. Both Maxine and Leo realize that “it takes a long time to grow a garden…but even longer to grow a friend.” Hatam offers kids lots of minutiae to look at, including clever endpapers with comical one-liners (“Thyme to Turnip the Beet”). Her detailed, animated, vibrant drawings accentuate the drama and neatly depict the concluding message that celebrates compromise. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 62.7% of actual size.)

Kids will enjoy the quirky visuals while appreciating the creative relationship of these two companions. (Picture book. 5-7)