After an argument with her mother, a little girl imagines how other creatures express their anger with each other, to mixed effect, in this Scandinavian import. While readers will understand that dogs flatten their ears, it is less easy to see the logic behind dragons with “smoke coming out of their behinds” or angels turning their backs on each other and flapping their wings. Raisins (that look more like mouse droppings) hide in separate cookies. Most pages are composed on a stark white background, which allows the childlike, black-outlined figures in saturated colors to pop. The font, presented in many colors, fades to yellow in places, making it difficult to read. Some illustrations appear to have been cut-and-pasted from previous images; the mother’s lips appear permanently pursed, even when her emotions have changed. For far better treatments of parent-child anger, see Mem Fox’s Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild, illustrated by Marla Frazee (2000), or Robie Harris’s The Day Leo Said, “I Hate You!” illustrated by Molly Bang (2008). (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9790347-8-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: MacKenzie Smiles
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
A worthy message wrapped up in a playful romp.
A romp about saying “I don’t know.”
An apartment building full of cartoonlike creatures shown interacting through their windows (a clever illustrative decision) evokes the lively life of urban living. When one neighbor asks another (via the window) to wake them up in “20 coconuts,” the neighbor agrees but then admits to himself that he doesn’t know what that means—something that bothers him because he is known for being a know-it-all; in fact, he comes from a family of know-it-alls. Ah, pressure! The know-it-all gets himself into a tizzy, cleans his ears and finds a sock and a chicken, consults “Phoney” (his cellphone), and even gets his brain washed by Wally’s Wash Works. If this all sounds extremely silly and somewhat chaotic, it is—which means kids will probably love it. Eventually, he wakes up his neighbor with his yelling (right on time, apparently) but admits to her he doesn’t know what 20 coconuts means. She offers to explain, but then he says he has to be somewhere in “11 bananas,” throwing her into confusion. The energetic (some may say frenzied) tone is amplified by illustrations that have lots going on, with various characters talking in dialogue bubbles to each other, but the message itself comes across as a little light until an explanatory note from the “brains” spells it out—it’s OK to say you don’t know. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A worthy message wrapped up in a playful romp. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31196-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster.
In singer Amerie’s picture-book debut, a biracial child goes on a magical adventure, with ancestors rooting them on.
Full-bleed spreads depict a dark-skinned infant being nurtured by a Black- and Korean-coded family and growing into an energetic youngster with light brown locs and a high fade. As the family sits down to a meal, the protagonist wanders off, their eye caught by an old photograph of a smiling, Black ancestor in overalls. When the child reaches out toward the picture, they fly through the frame and emerge in a jewel-toned forest. The woods are full of glowing, dancing Black and Asian ancestors. Accompanied by rhyming, inspirational text, the narrative winds along with the jubilant kid as they dance through the trees, chase an otherworldly white creature, ride a fiery bird (perhaps inspired by the Samjok-o from Korean mythology), and meet a person in a Korean hanbok before returning home. Younger readers may enjoy the singsong words alongside illustrator Figueroa’s colorful, dreamlike art, but overall, the narrative feels somewhat unstructured and unsatisfying. Platitudes like “You will do big things / That just might change the world. // And you will do small things / That may help one boy or girl” are too timeworn to stand out, and the youngster’s hop from one supernatural montage to the next is more dizzying than enchanting. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81702-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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