A playful tribute to libraries.
Chapin and Mark’s “Library Song” is reinvigorated into an inviting picture book.
It’s Saturday morning, the rain is pouring, Dad is snoring, and what’s a kid to do? Go to the library, of course. The narrator, a black child in a dress and green rain boots, roams the stacks for a book. “Now I like books and they like me, / so when I go to the library, / I sit down in my favorite chair / and check to see who’s there.” One after another, book characters offer to go home with her: Winnie-the-Pooh, Sleeping Beauty, Madeline, the Cat in the Hat, Pinocchio, the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Babar, Curious George, even Mother Goose. The child checks out a stack of books, leaves the library with a veritable swarm of characters, and goes home to read. The digital-and-pencil illustrations are quite appealing, especially the cover illustration that depicts the child, who sports an Afro, bright, yellow frame glasses, and perky nose, holding the titular book. The only blip is the librarian, a white woman who borders on a shushing stereotype, dressed in a two-piece suit with a white blouse and sporting a blonde bob. Kids may not mind however, as the singsong-y text and the action will carry the entertaining story.
A playful tribute to libraries. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6092-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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