by Susumu Shingu ; illustrated by Susumu Shingu ; translated by Ann B. Cary ; Yasuko Shingu ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2015
The overall imagery and poetic text combine to create a pleasing book on an unlikely topic for the youngest children.
The largest living fish on the planet is feted with spare text and illustrations in blue, black and white.
The artwork is spectacular, all double-page spreads that appear to use pen and ink as well as airbrush to create a feeling of the oceanic world. In the beginning, just enough suspense is built to intrigue young readers. Over the time it takes to turn three pages, the text moves slowly: “In the full light of the ocean, / suddenly, an enormous shadow / looms….” The fourth spread completes the sentence with the words, “bringing along a crowd of friends.” The accompanying art begins with a striking pen-and-ink illustration of the sky seen from beneath the sea and moves to sketches and airbrushed images of a large mass moving in and to the gentle giant swimming along with scores of small fish. The rest of the book emphasizes the nonthreatening aspects of this animal that dines solely on plankton and swims amicably with divers. It seems a missed opportunity that a diver is shown swimming alongside the fish, when, according to the endnotes, people have successfully clung to its fins for a ride.
The overall imagery and poetic text combine to create a pleasing book on an unlikely topic for the youngest children. (Informational picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-77147-130-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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by Susumu Shingu ; illustrated by Susumu Shingu
by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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More by Kimberly Dean
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by Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean
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by James Dean & Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean
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by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean
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