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THE BIG HOUSE AND THE LITTLE HOUSE

Name: THE BIG HOUSE AND THE LITTLE HOUSE
Author: Yoshi Ueno
ISBN: 978-1-64614-049-7

by Yoshi Ueno ; illustrated by Emiko Fujishima ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 9, 2021

Tender and companionable.

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From far away down a long road, two animals make friends.

The horizontal orientation of this title offers long left-to-right spreads, and across them wanders a pale yellow road, sloping gradually upward. “At one end was a little house, standing all alone,” so tiny that readers must peer closely to glimpse the red-roofed miniature. Far away, up the low-grade hill, stands a “big house”— big only when compared to the small one, still small in the countryside landscape. Little Mouse and Big Bear each live contentedly, but both are lonely. Details twinkle: Little Mouse works in a busy bakery (with a chef’s toque and rolling pin) while Big Bear works “alone in the forest”; each heads away from the other’s house to reach work; and Little Mouse explores the forest only on the single day Big Bear explores the town. The prose in this translation from the Japanese is plainspoken and elegant. Fujishima uses fine black pen for outlines, shadings, and textures while light hues—tans, pinks, blues, and greens, all pale—round out the gentle scenes. After the two bond but before they quite solidify a friendship, the river overflows, endangering Little Mouse’s house. Big Bear ventures bravely out into an almost-unrecognizable panorama of rolling blue water, blue trees, and blue wind—but readers will recognize the shape of the road between the houses, and there is, natch, a happy ending that’s the opposite of treacly.

Tender and companionable. (Picture book. 2-7)

Pub Date: March 9, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-64614-049-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Levine Querido

Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)