The book’s subtle message makes it a great vehicle to help children explore their own creativity
Pikiq lives in the far north, a land with very few colors until he discovers a surprise in the snow.
While out with his sidekicks, Kri the crow and Bou the snowy owl, Pikiq spies a buried box. To his surprise, it contains art supplies and a book with pictures of strange trees and unusual animals that spark his imagination. Taking the paper and colors, he draws for hours. When he uses up all the paper, he paints on the snow. That night Pikiq decides to go on a trip to find the book’s amazing animals and trees, falling asleep with colors swirling in his mind and dreams: Pikiq and his friends pass a sleeping giant and bounce on the drum of the giant’s wife; they become lost in a maze of caribou antlers and gaze at a forest of green elephants. One stunning double-page spread finds the friends playing “hide-and-seek with some trees,” the barren trunks and branches aboveground, with brightly leaved mirror images below. Yayo’s simple story, stunning use of color, and magical-realism sensibility take young readers on a fanciful adventure that ends with a sweet little twist. While the adventure includes tired tropes—Pikiq appears to live in an igloo—its playfulness and affection for its main character help to mitigate them.
The book’s subtle message makes it a great vehicle to help children explore their own creativity . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-926890-05-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tradewind Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
Skip it
This book wants to be feminist.
Princess Penelope Pineapple, illustrated as a white girl with dark hair and eyes, is the Amelia Bloomer of the Pineapple Kingdom. She has dresses, but she prefers to wear pants as she engages in myriad activities ranging from yoga to gardening, from piloting a plane to hosting a science fair. When it’s time for the Pineapple Ball, she imagines wearing a sparkly pants outfit, but she worries about Grand Lady Busyboots’ disapproval: “ ‘Pants have no place on a lady!’ she’d say. / ‘That’s how it has been, and that’s how it shall stay.’ ” In a moment of seeming dissonance between the text and art, Penny seems to resolve to wear pants, but then she shows up to the ball in a gown. This apparent contradiction is resolved when the family cat, Miss Fussywiggles, falls from the castle into the moat and Princess Penelope saves her—after stripping off her gown to reveal pink, flowered swimming trunks and a matching top. Impressed, Grand Lady Busyboots resolves that princesses can henceforth wear whatever they wish. While seeing a princess as savior rather than damsel in distress may still seem novel, it seems a stretch to cast pants-wearing as a broadly contested contemporary American feminist issue. Guthrie and Oppenheim’s unimaginative, singsong rhyme is matched in subtlety by Byrne’s bright illustrations.
Skip it . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2603-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here.
A sugary poem, very loosely based on the familiar song, lacks focus.
Using only the refrain from the original (“One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel all right!”), the reggae great’s daughter Cedella Marley sees this song as her “happy song” and adapts it for children. However, the adaptation robs it of life. After the opening lines, readers familiar with the original song (or the tourism advertisement for Jamaica) will be humming along only to be stopped by the bland lines that follow: “One love, what the flower gives the bee.” and then “One love, what Mother Earth gives the tree.” Brantley-Newton’s sunny illustrations perfectly reflect the saccharine quality of the text. Starting at the beginning of the day, readers see a little girl first in bed, under a photograph of Bob Marley, the sun streaming into her room, a bird at the window. Each spread is completely redundant—when the text is about family love, the illustration actually shows little hearts floating from her parents to the little girl. An image of a diverse group getting ready to plant a community garden, walking on top of a river accompanies the words “One love, like the river runs to the sea.”
Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4521-0224-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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