A picture book with a valuable message of acceptance, unevenly executed.
A picture book that emphasizes love and diversity while introducing children to different types of family relationships.
Over 31 pages, Neal, who has previously written a relationship book for teen and adult women (The World’s Top Ten Worst Men for Women Guide, 2012), shows how large and small families can consist of many different kinds of relationships. At one point, three sisters of different ages—all represented with the same clip-art image—are described as playing together; at another, a boy named Shawki is said to be adjusting to a new little brother who loves to ride his bike. The book’s emphasis on diversity is its strongest aspect, and images include children of many different races and children with disabilities. In one section, the book focuses on the different kinds of mothers who love their children: “Some moms are big; some moms are small. / Some moms are short; some moms are tall. / Some moms have dark skin; some have light. / Some can’t see but hold you tight. / Some moms simply can’t hear or walk. / There are moms that don’t even talk!” The art, however, is often forgettable and includes computer generated, cartoonish sketches apparently taken from public-domain collections rather than created specifically for the title. The book’s concepts may be most appropriate for preschool-age children, but for that audience there are generally too many words per page. Readers may also find the rhyme schemes awkward at times (“It takes all types of people to make the world go around— / Love and friendship link us, to our families we're bound!”). Also, two characters have the same name, which is likely to confuse young audiences and parents alike.
A picture book with a valuable message of acceptance, unevenly executed.Pub Date: March 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1480075993
Page Count: 36
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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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