Young children will enjoy this picture book’s unlikely story of can-do empowerment, dreams, and friendship, but its...
In Williams’ (A Monster for Tea, 2013, etc.) offbeat picture book, an adventurous young pachyderm experiences numerous delights thanks to a kindhearted boy with a talent for construction.
In this flight of fancy, a young elephant tries to see what it’s like to sit on a chair (it breaks), ride a bicycle (it folds), sail on a boat (it sinks), and ride in a car (the axles break). When a boy speeds by on a bicycle, the elephant chases after him, and the youngster instantly grasps the animal’s dilemma: “You need someone to help you. To make things that are strong.” So he creates “durable devices that would not fold, break, or bend.” The results, including a car with tires that “would not pop,” are instant and successful. The author/illustrator’s depiction of the wide-eyed elephant in the redesigned car, with the boy looking on, is a highlight of the book. The story undergoes an abrupt tonal shift, though, after the boy and elephant ride and sail together and eventually return to their respective worlds. In the end, the nostalgic adult elephant sadly returns to the site where he and the boy first met, where readers find the “special boat” now “full of holes…a leg from the oversized chair…or perhaps part of the giant car.” Visually, Williams’ use of varied brush strokes and patterns is pleasing to the eye. However, his overall style of charcoal pencil and watercolor illustrations, as if rendered by a very young child, isn’t altogether successful; in particular, the boy’s overly crude rendering lacks the simple elephant shape’s unforced appeal. The title is also a puzzler, as the word “birthday” doesn’t appear anywhere in the text, nor is it a theme of the story.
Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0989069861
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Fernwood & Hedges Books
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
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
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