“Conceived and designed” by a three-person collective, this account of a child’s changing relationship with a moody crayon will certainly have viewers of all ages seeing red. Fresh out of the box, the young narrator’s crayon is friendly, boasting of all the red things in the world—but its disposition changes with its length, and by the end, it has to be coaxed out of hiding for its last hurrah, a school report on the Red Planet. Cheerfully disregarding the idea that a book’s design should not be intrusive, the members of 3CD place lines of text that looks hand-lettered and smaller explanatory captions across clipped or otherwise worked photos of a rooster’s head, baseball stitches, a stoplight, and other red items, all of which are decked out in intense, saturated color. Closer in spirit to Jane Wattenberg’s wild Henny Penny (2000) than the comparatively sedate color studies of Tana Hoban, or even Bruce McMillan, these super-closeup, almost incandescent images make nearly every turn of the page an occasion for startled chuckles. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-316-60940-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A girl with a passion for pink discovers that the monochromatic life may not be a bed of roses after all. Much like Roald Dahl’s Violet, this little girl doesn’t know when to say enough, as she over-indulges in the pinker-than-pink cupcakes she and her mother have made. Even when she awakens to discover she is a vivid pink hue, the girl is delighted. However, when her continual consumption of the pastry results in her color deepening to a red, she knows she must listen to her doctor and consume the antidote of—what else—green foods. Kann’s snappy prose is filled with subtle puns and jokes—the girls calls herself “pinkerella” and “pinkerbelle”—to keep astute readers chuckling. The tale is over the top enough to engage older readers while the younger set will be fascinated by the thought of becoming their favorite color. Kann’s computer-enhanced, full-color illustrations are a continuation of the zaniness. Bold colors and collage-style accents create a surreal landscape in which a child turning pink seems to be almost normal. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-077639-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2006
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