Creatively varying design, enormous cartoon eyes, and offbeat tertiary colors characterize this unusual animal tale. A bunny named Celerina finds an empty house and moves in, unaware that a snail named Gluey already considers it his and has been fixing its cracks “for as long as he could remember.” He is too small for her to notice, but he happily accepts her presence, even surreptitiously repairing her broken objects with his “carpenter snail” talents. She assumes that magic is at work and plans a party to show it off; however, when Gluey tries to introduce himself to her, she flings him immediately across the meadow. He lands among the elfish Wee people, who contribute several textual puns accessible only to readers who can read, but who also care for Gluey and help him return home. Celerina’s impulsive, unfriendly behavior, as well as that of her amusingly written but rowdy friends (who join her in smashing dishes and eventually destroy the house), runs its course and has no particular consequences: Gluey feels neither hurt nor resentful, and the house gets rebuilt by the Wee people. Tiny signs and verbal comments in varying fonts pop up refreshingly in the computer-generated illustrations. Two dark nighttime spreads are visually entrancing, while several others have too many olive greens and beige yellows. Sudden creativity of composition and design keep the offbeat pictures interesting. Strange but intriguing. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-15-216620-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
Not what it says on the tin.
An energetic kid has an energetic day.
A tall, skinny white girl slides gleefully down a bannister, landing atop a tall bear who seems to be her guardian. Bear suggests tea and toast for breakfast, but Lola whips up a feast. At the library, “a little light reading” becomes stacks of books taller than Lola; at the park, Lola and Bear pause—not on a regular bridge but on Claude Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, inspired by Lola’s newly acquired knowledge of art. The pencil, gouache, and watercolor illustrations are whimsical and breezy, with a lovely airiness that helps give the lie to the piece’s premise. Both the opening lines—“This is Lola. Lola Dutch. Lola Dutch is a little bit much”—and Bear’s repetition of “a little bit much” or variations thereof imply a mischievous or melodramatic Lola. But in a picture-book world founded by Max and Eloise, Lola’s not intense or naughty; she’s merely exuberant. She elegantly re-creates Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam on her ceiling, adding herself and her friends to it. With a different illustrative style, a child-improvised Sistine Chapel at home could certainly be too “much,” but here it’s neither chaotic nor messy. Given that, the repeated premise chastises and chafes—and implies a call for quieter girls.
Not what it says on the tin. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-551-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Aims high but just doesn’t get there.
Beware the imagination that cannot be contained.
When Poppa Fox comes to pick his son up after school he finds Little Fox a complete grump. Happily, Poppa Fox knows just the way to perk up his kiddo. One minute they’re pretending to be race cars, the next they’re dinos on the bus, and then later they’re blasting off to outer space to grab some ice cream. Unfortunately, all that sugar before dinner means that Little Fox’s imagination is now primed to go haywire. Now he’s a robo squid destroying a broccoli forest (rather than eating his dinner), then a shark devouring his dad, who is driving a mail truck (that is, splashing way too much in the tub). Things calm down by bedtime, but when Poppa Fox tells his son he will pick him up again the next day, Little Fox already has big plans. As books built on the power of imagination go, this story starts out strong but loses steam about the time Little Fox loses his focus. Santat’s art does more than its fair share of the heavy lifting, particularly when Little Fox’s imagination is supposed to go off the rails. Madcap adventure never looked this fun. Yet the book can’t quite nail the landing, shifting tone from one page turn to the next, leaving readers ultimately unsatisfied. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 33.8% of actual size.)
Aims high but just doesn’t get there. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21250-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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