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WHEN I GROW UP

Name: WHEN I GROW UP
Author: Tim Minchin
ISBN: 978-1-338-23384-1

by Tim Minchin ; illustrated by Steve Antony ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2018

Not as smooth as many other song-to–picture book titles; harmless but ultimately unsatisfying.

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Minchin’s affecting song from the Tony Award–winning musical Matilda gets the picture book treatment.

“When I grow up, I will be / tall enough to reach / the branches that / I have to reach // to climb the trees you get to climb // when you’re grown-up.” Three grayscale children (one with cropped hair and pale skin, one with long hair in a ponytail and glasses, and one with darker skin and two curly puffs) in shorts, T-shirts, and sneakers journey through increasingly whimsical double-page spreads. Imagining the freedoms of adulthood, the children fantasize about loading grocery carts with “treats” and battling “the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each night to be a grown-up.” The final spread shows the original trio at dusk under a large tree, looking wistfully at the branches: “When I grow up. / When I grow up. / When I grow up.” Spreads in dusty pastels sometimes clash with the children’s bold, primary-colored outfits, but they otherwise create a pleasant calm. The illustrations portray a relatively diverse array of characters, including children who use wheelchairs and children with varying hair textures and (gray) skin tones. Unfortunately, however, without the melody and the context of the musical, the bittersweet poignancy of the song is lost and the lyrics fall flat.

Not as smooth as many other song-to–picture book titles; harmless but ultimately unsatisfying. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: March 27, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-338-23384-1

Page Count: 30

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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PRINCESSES WEAR PANTS

by Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim ; illustrated by Eva Byrne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2017

Skip it

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This book wants to be feminist.

Princess Penelope Pineapple, illustrated as a white girl with dark hair and eyes, is the Amelia Bloomer of the Pineapple Kingdom. She has dresses, but she prefers to wear pants as she engages in myriad activities ranging from yoga to gardening, from piloting a plane to hosting a science fair. When it’s time for the Pineapple Ball, she imagines wearing a sparkly pants outfit, but she worries about Grand Lady Busyboots’ disapproval: “ ‘Pants have no place on a lady!’ she’d say. / ‘That’s how it has been, and that’s how it shall stay.’ ” In a moment of seeming dissonance between the text and art, Penny seems to resolve to wear pants, but then she shows up to the ball in a gown. This apparent contradiction is resolved when the family cat, Miss Fussywiggles, falls from the castle into the moat and Princess Penelope saves her—after stripping off her gown to reveal pink, flowered swimming trunks and a matching top. Impressed, Grand Lady Busyboots resolves that princesses can henceforth wear whatever they wish. While seeing a princess as savior rather than damsel in distress may still seem novel, it seems a stretch to cast pants-wearing as a broadly contested contemporary American feminist issue. Guthrie and Oppenheim’s unimaginative, singsong rhyme is matched in subtlety by Byrne’s bright illustrations.

Skip it . (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4197-2603-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
PRINCESSES SAVE THE WORLD
by Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim illustrated by Eva Byrne

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ONE LOVE

by Bob Marley & adapted by Cedella Marley & illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2011

Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here.

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A sugary poem, very loosely based on the familiar song, lacks focus.

Using only the refrain from the original (“One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel all right!”), the reggae great’s daughter Cedella Marley sees this song as her “happy song” and adapts it for children. However, the adaptation robs it of life. After the opening lines, readers familiar with the original song (or the tourism advertisement for Jamaica) will be humming along only to be stopped by the bland lines that follow: “One love, what the flower gives the bee.” and then “One love, what Mother Earth gives the tree.” Brantley-Newton’s sunny illustrations perfectly reflect the saccharine quality of the text. Starting at the beginning of the day, readers see a little girl first in bed, under a photograph of Bob Marley, the sun streaming into her room, a bird at the window. Each spread is completely redundant—when the text is about family love, the illustration actually shows little hearts floating from her parents to the little girl. An image of a diverse group getting ready to plant a community garden, walking on top of a river accompanies the words “One love, like the river runs to the sea.”

Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-5)