A joyous celebration of a wonderful bond.
A mother and son’s call-and-response tradition keeps them linked even when they aren’t together.
It’s the illustrations that do the heavy lifting in this tale since the text consists of the two titular words and a final “I always love you” at bedtime, but those pictures speak volumes. An exuberant young boy greets his sleeping mother in the morning: “Rutabaga?” The following spread show her awake and joyously swinging him up in her arms: “Boo!” The two repeat this exchange all day, the boy’s sometimes ending with a question mark, as when he can’t find her during a game of hide-and-seek, and sometimes with an enthusiastic exclamation point. But the whole day isn’t spent together—at one point mom snuggles him in what appears to be grandma’s house before leaving briefly, the boy forlorn at the door, though the two do exchange the titular words over a video chat on the computer, and great fun is had with grandma, who ultimately gets him ready for bedtime and the return of mom (caregivers may sigh at the sight of toys in a gift bag, though the boy’s ever present stuffed rabbit is never pushed aside). Adamson’s watercolor-and-pencil illustrations celebrate the bond between mother and child, and she doesn’t dwell on the separation, showing that the boy can still have fun even though the two are apart. This single-parent family is white.
A joyous celebration of a wonderful bond. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2461-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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