Next book

FLORENCE & LEON

A try for “sweet and refreshing” that lands squarely in “thoughtless and stale.” (Picture book. 3-7)

Two strangers meet and bond over shared struggles with disability and a fondness for straws in Boulerice and Côté-Lacroix’s debut collaboration.

Florence loves to swim and gets rewarded with a tasty drink and swirly straw whenever she swims the fastest. Leon tries hard on his soccer team and comforts himself with juice and a giant straw whenever he loses. Some years later, as adults, Florence, a swim teacher with obstructed breathing, and Leon, an insurance salesman with tunnel vision who uses a white cane, meet by chance and get to know each other over lunch and drinks with straws. This relatively unfettered narrative is rendered stiff by missteps, possibly due to translation. Simple sentences feel stilted, as if they’ve been translated word for word rather than for ideas and meaning. Even good translation, however, cannot save poor craft. Eschewing any semblance of plot in favor of an extended meet-cute, this narrative misses full, nuanced representation of disabled characters by a mile—insinuating, for instance, that disclosure of disability is somehow compulsory between acquaintances. The one saving grace is the illustrations. Light and uncluttered pencil drawings with splashes of cheery red and yellow make excellent use of white space to connect scenes of spot art and, in contrast to the text, visually render elements of each of the white character’s experience with disability with confident accuracy as Florence and Leon explain each of their impairments using straws as a metaphor.

A try for “sweet and refreshing” that lands squarely in “thoughtless and stale.” (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4598-1822-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orca

Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018

Next book

THE LITTLE PUPPY

From the My Little Animal Friend series

Gives new meaning to the notion that every dog—or pup—has its day.

A young girl learns that plans that go awry need not spoil the day.

Ollie has ambitious intentions for dog sitting Milo, her grandmother’s puppy, but those plans are spoiled when he chews up her drawing, a gift intended for Grandma when she returns from visiting friends. The girl scolds the little dog and then takes some time to herself, leaving him behind and walking farther and farther away from home in order to cool off. But as the illustrations show, Milo is never far behind, surreptitiously trailing her all the way through the woods. Ollie reflects on the part she played in the drawing’s destruction, since she knew better than to leave it unguarded on the floor, and she regrets getting mad at the dog. When she finally stops and wishes for company, the loyal pup is right nearby. They spend their day frolicking in the woods, playing fetch, splashing in mud puddles, and hunting for treasure as pirates. When they return home, she still has time to draw another picture or two. Accessible text with relatable, appealing characters helps the message of adaptability go down smoothly. The charming artwork features various shades of gray as well as pink and red spot color, often in heart shapes. Ollie, who has skin the white of the page, wears a dog costume throughout the story. Her experience demonstrates that things can work out just fine, even when they weren’t what you had in mind.

Gives new meaning to the notion that every dog—or pup—has its day. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024

ISBN: 9781665965903

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024

Next book

WITH ALL MY HEART

Sweet.

A caregiving bear shares with its cub how love has defined their relationship from the first moment and through the years as the cub has grown.

With rhymes and a steady rhythm that are less singsong-y than similar books, Stansbie seems to have hit a sweet spot for this offering on the I-love-you-always shelf. Readers follow the adult and child as they share special moments together—a sunset, a splash in a pond, climbing a tree, a snuggle—and the adult tells the child that the love it feels has only grown. Stansbie also takes care not to put promises in the adult bear’s mouth that can’t be delivered, acknowledging that physical proximity is not always possible: “Wherever you are, / even when we’re apart… // I’ll love you forever / with all of my heart.” The large trim size helps the sweet illustrations shine; their emphasis is on the close relationship between parent and child. Shaped peekaboo windows offer glimpses of preceding and succeeding pages, images and text carefully placed to work whatever the context. While the die cuts on the interior pages will not hold up to rough handling, they do add whimsy and delight to the book as a whole: “And now that you’re bigger, / you make my heart sing. / My / beautiful / wonderful / magical / thing.” Those last three adjectives are positioned in leaf-shaped cutouts, the turn of the page revealing the roly-poly cub in a pile of leaves, three formed by the die-cuts. Opposite, three vignettes show the cub appreciating the “beautiful,” the “wonderful,” and the “magical.”

Sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-68412-910-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Silver Dolphin

Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019

Close Quickview