by Tony Johnston & illustrated by Carole Byard ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
In a Los Angeles seemingly devoid of angels, one old man makes a step toward municipal redemption when he adopts a baby he finds abandoned in a dumpster. Based on a true story, Johnston’s lyrical prose poem develops the loving relationship between old Joseph and Juan, the former an African-American from Georgia, the latter the little Mexican boy he’s determined to raise in both cultures. Accordingly, old Joseph takes cooking lessons from Latina neighbors and tells the little boy stories he learned from his elders. Together they take a vacant lot and turn it into a cornfield so Juan will “know the song of corn.” Underlying everything is the old man’s fear that the violence that has overtaken Los Angeles will find Juan, a fear that bears bitter fruit when Juan is nine and his best friend is killed in a drive-by shooting. Byard’s bright, loose acrylics present the relationship year by year, the care in old Joseph’s face contrasting with the compact energy of the growing Juan. A quieter exploration of the toll inner-city violence takes on the innocent is hard to imagine, nor a lovelier. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-23405-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2006
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by Andrew Clements & illustrated by R.W. Alley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2005
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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by David Wiesner ; illustrated by David Wiesner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2020
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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