Promising content swaddled by iffy presentation.
With the help of some monkeys, a teddy bear teaches readers all about hugs.
Teddy Bear Tim (the author’s teddy-bear persona) waves to readers and declares, “I LOVE hugs!” His upbeat narration continues as Teddy Bear Tim meets up with a trio of cuddly monkeys who share the love for hugs—and bananas. The four characters list many different kinds of hugs (like “happy hugs,” “slow hugs,” or “monkey hugs”) before Teddy Bear Tim shares the “three simple steps” to giving a hug. They are: ask first, open arms wide, and wrap the other person in a hug (“tight, but not too tight”). Once the instructions are given, Teddy Bear Tim describes some hugging scenarios and acts them out with the monkeys. From running full-bore into each other’s arms to a 5-second “quick hug,” the hugs all point back to Teddy Bear Tim’s key precept: “The LOVE is the most important part.” Motivational speaker and disability advocate Harris’ debut picture book affirms the joy of hugs while highlighting the importance of consent. Astrella’s expressive cartoon characters and energetic hugging sequences show his animation background. But the constant shifts in perspective from below to above in the first few pages are jarring. Simple white backgrounds allow readers to focus mostly on the text, which varies in complexity from one to five sentences per page. Banana endpapers bookend the story.
Promising content swaddled by iffy presentation. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4867-2104-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
An unfortunately simplistic delivery of a well-intentioned message.
Drawing on lyrics from her Mormon children’s hymn of the same title, Pearson explores diversity and acceptance in a more secular context.
Addressing people of varying ages, races, origins, and abilities in forced rhymes that omit the original version’s references to Jesus, various speakers describe how they—unlike “some people”—will “show [their] love for” their fellow humans. “If you don’t talk as most people do / some people talk and laugh at you,” a child tells a tongue-tied classmate. “But I won’t! / I won’t! / I’ll talk with you / and giggle too. / That’s how I’ll show my love for you.” Unfortunately, many speakers’ actions feel vague and rather patronizing even as they aim to include and reassure. “I know you bring such interesting things,” a wheelchair user says, welcoming a family “born far, far away” who arrives at the airport; the adults wear Islamic clothing. As pink- and brown-skinned worshipers join a solitary brown-skinned person who somehow “[doesn’t] pray as some people pray” on a church pew, a smiling, pink-skinned worshiper’s declaration that “we’re all, I see, one family” raises echoes of the problematic assertion, “I don’t see color.” The speakers’ exclamations of “But I won’t!” after noting others’ prejudiced behavior reads more as self-congratulation than promise of inclusion. Sanders’ geometric, doll-like human figures are cheery but stiff, and the text’s bold, uppercase typeface switches jarringly to cursive for the refrain, “That’s how I’ll show my love for you.” Characters’ complexions include paper-white, yellow, pink, and brown.
An unfortunately simplistic delivery of a well-intentioned message. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4236-5395-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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