In the fourth installment of Yee’s seasonal picture-book quartet (Who Likes Rain?, 2007, etc.), a girl celebrates the coming of autumn and finds a special way to remember it when it’s over.
Yee’s rhyming text conveys the first-person narrator’s excitement as summer turns to fall. She delights in exploring the natural world and uses a camera, pencil, and sketchbook to record observations. A trusty backpack carries these supplies and holds colorful, fallen leaves and acorns, too. The story ultimately suggests that the most precious things she collects are memories of time spent in autumnal beauty, and she uses scissors, glue, crayons, and the photos and items she’s gathered to create the eponymous “autumn book.” Closing spreads show her cozied up inside her house and looking at her scrapbook on wintry days. Throughout, Yee’s Prismacolor illustrations consistently reflect the girl’s experiences while also employing design choices to bring readers close to her activities—some pictures are made to look like photos the girl took with her camera, for example. On the other hand, while readers might believe the girl took the depicted photos, the rhyming style of the text (while consistent with the other books in the series) can make the narration feel a bit forced alongside the more successful artistic rendering of the child’s point of view.
Quibble aside, a sound conclusion to the series. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9922-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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SEEN & HEARD
The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.
Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593621110
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS
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