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
Loewen’s story is a simple snapshot of kindergarten graduation day, and it stays true to form, with Yoshikawa’s artwork resembling photos that might be placed in an album—and the illustrations cheer, a mixed media of saturated color, remarkable depth and joyful expression. The author comfortably captures the hesitations of making the jump from kindergarten to first grade without making a fuss about it, and she makes the prospect something worth the effort. Trepidation aside, this is a reminder of how much fun kindergarten was: your own cubbyhole, the Halloween parade, losing a tooth, “the last time we’ll ever sit criss-cross applesauce together.” But there is also the fledgling’s pleasure at shucking off the past—swabbing the desks, tossing out the stubbiest crayons, taking the pictures off the wall—and surging into the future. Then there is graduation itself: donning the mortarboards, trooping into the auditorium—“Mr. Meyer starts playing a serious song on the piano. It makes me want to cry. It makes me want to march”—which will likely have a few adult readers feeling the same. (Picture book. 4-5)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5807-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
Digital illustrations vary in format from spot art to full-bleed spreads, but everything from the begowned princesses to the...
The particular challenge of redoing a well-known, oft-published fairy tale is to offer a fresh or fruitful take, and this one doesn’t.
Digital illustrations vary in format from spot art to full-bleed spreads, but everything from the begowned princesses to the sparkling underground land they visit each night falls flat. The princesses are named for blossoms, each one “lovelier than the flower she was named for,” but their impossibly tiny waists and huge blue eyes look like a cheap, dull version of Disney. Their dance postures barely connote motion. On the page that displays the tale’s premise—that “[e]very morning, without fail, the soles of the princesses’ shoes were worn out and full of holes”—Barrager shows (nine) slippers that are grubby and scuffed but lack a single hole. Matching the insipid aesthetic is a text stripped of grit. No men lose their lives trying to solve the mystery before the hero (here, Pip the cobbler) does, and there are no men in the princesses’ underground boats, which “float silently” of their own accord. The boats need to float of their own accord, because these princesses have neither agency nor consciousness: They’re asleep from start to finish of the dancing escapades.Pub Date: June 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8118-7696-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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