A tender, whimsical look at growth, change, and sisters.
“I’d had my suspicions for a while…that someone had replaced my sister with a girl who looked a lot like her. It had to be!”
These words spread over the opening double-page spread, which presents a small girl kneeling on the floor, surrounded by scattered photographs and gazing disconsolately at a family album. On the next page, she is in a kitchen, staring at her big sister, who “was never so tall.” The art is arresting and amusing, a skillful combination of watercolor and other media, using a limited palette. Young readers with older siblings may recognize signs of adolescence considered typical in Western society: a sudden refusal to engage in childish games; secretiveness—“even when it wasn’t close to my birthday”—new intimacy with Mum; pervasive door-slamming. One telling, funny moment occurs when the protagonist turns to her sister’s friends for clues: “but something wasn’t right with them either. And it wasn’t just that a lot of them were boys.” This passage is accompanied by a lineup of wired-in, apathetic-looking teenagers. Despite stereotyping, the book is noteworthy for taking the viewpoint of a younger sibling instead of the more common theme of a beleaguered older child. Gently humorous art and text transform a simple story into a haven for children feeling temporarily sibling-wary.
A tender, whimsical look at growth, change, and sisters. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-909263-52-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gentle on ear and eye, a keen display of relationships bound together in love and complexity.
A metaphor-rich venture that is far preferable to average Runaway Bunny read-alike fare.
Raising the bar for cutesy paeans to snuggly feelings, Fogliano uses surprising connections to telegraph love with frequently unexpected results. She begins, all in lowercase, with a gentle, “if i was the sunshine / and you were the day / i’d call you hello! // and you’d call me stay.” Never approaching syrupy, the comparisons range from the intuitive to the unpredictable. “if i was the silence / and you were a sound / i’d call you missing // and you’d call me found.” Soon it becomes clear that although love is common to each of these pairings, the emotion changes depending on the creature. “if you were a bird / and i was a tree / you’d call me home // and i’d call you free.” Readers are left understanding that what is going on here is far more than simple affection between parent and child. Her choice to eschew the subjunctive mood makes the comparisons seem tantalizingly possible. Jewel-toned images full of light, formed by sumptuous acrylic paints, bring the distant near and the miniscule close. Younger readers will wrap themselves in Long’s art while older kids strive to parse the meaning behind each of these gentle rhymes.
Gentle on ear and eye, a keen display of relationships bound together in love and complexity. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7243-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
A fascinating, splendidly executed peek into both the mundane and the dramatic aspects of lighthouse life.
This tribute to lighthouses of an earlier era focuses on one lighthouse and its dedicated keeper.
Perched “on the highest rock of a tiny island / at the edge of the world,” the lighthouse shines for seafaring ships. A new keeper arrives, continuing the endless routine of polishing the lens, refilling the oil, trimming the wick, winding the clockwork, painting the round rooms, fishing, making tea, sending letters to his wife (in bottles), and writing daily in his logbook. One day, a ship delivering supplies brings the keeper’s wife! The keeper rings a warning bell in fog, rescues wrecked sailors, and logs his baby’s birth. When he’s ill, his stalwart wife tends the light and maintains the logbook. Eventually, a mechanical light replaces the keeper. While the spare, unemotional text resembles a keeper’s log, the book’s vertical orientation echoes a lighthouse tower. Rendered in Chinese ink and watercolor, precise, detailed illustrations present the lighthouse surrounded by patterned blue, green, or gray waves depending on the weather or season, reinforcing its solitary enterprise. A cutaway interior view exposes a compact, contained world. Close-ups of the keeper and his wife (both white) in porthole-shaped frames and from unusual aerial views emphasize their isolated, intimate, circular environment. An “About Lighthouses” section adds insightful detail.
A fascinating, splendidly executed peek into both the mundane and the dramatic aspects of lighthouse life. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-36238-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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