A quietly content snapshot of a happy childhood.
A young boy basks in the everyday joy of life on a cattle ranch in Gardella’s picture book.
“Brody knows it’s time when wildflowers begin / to fade and grass bakes golden in the sun” reads one of the author’s poetic turns of phrase describing her protagonist’s alacrity. Young Brody’s life on the family ranch includes playing with the dogs, packing shelves, watching the horses and cattle, and singing campfire songs with the cowboys. During all of these activities, Brody, who has fair skin and blond hair, knows “it’s almost time”—the repetition draws readers in with a sense of anticipation, wondering, “time for what?” The answer is something of an anticlimax: The story ends with a cattle muster, possibly Brody’s first (if not, it’s just another event adding to the sense of idyll and belonging). Mutton brings the ranch setting to life with digitally rendered illustrations that foreground the personalities of those involved—Brody, his parents and grandparents, and a host of big-eyed animals—while offering some exquisite flourishes (the abstract swirl of flowers on page three) and leaving sufficient blank space for the text to stand out. The font has a homemade, western slant to it, which adds visual vim but also might cause some readers to stumble. Notwithstanding such hiccups, young readers should approve.
A quietly content snapshot of a happy childhood.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781959412328
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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