Sure to provoke conversation, a fresh approach to looking, and multiple readings.
As they did in Before After (2014), Arégui and Ramstein invite viewers to investigate concepts by moving back and forth through their colorful, dynamic world.
The large-format, wordless book begins with the cross section of an enormous egg and the yellow duckling cramped inside. On the recto opposite, a mother and tiny purple offspring watch the still-unhatched oval. Next a spelunker descends into an amethyst mine; the facing page shows the holder of the rope at the surface. Each digital pairing offers plenty to ponder: What will happen when that duckling, larger and a different color than its siblings, emerges? Is that Rapunzel swimming across a pond? Is that little gray bird on the outside of the fence that pens in the parrots? Some scenes take more time than others to decipher, but the book’s creators have skillfully employed scale and color to guide careful seekers. Other images are unexpected: A figure in a tent, building a fire, is revealed to be inside a now-smoking whale; a vibrating heart precedes a bungee jumper. It is the distinct shapes of the amethysts in the final spreads that trigger recall and propel readers back to the beginning. The older gentleman at the window has a collection of objects and paintings that beg to be connected (to each spread?), adding another level of challenge. (He presents white, but other humans display diverse skin colors.)
Sure to provoke conversation, a fresh approach to looking, and multiple readings. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0597-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
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)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color
Duncan wants to draw, but instead of crayons, he finds a stack of letters listing the crayons’ demands in this humorous tale.
Red is overworked, laboring even on holidays. Gray is exhausted from coloring expansive spaces (elephants, rhinos and whales). Black wants to be considered a color-in color, and Peach? He’s naked without his wrapper! This anthropomorphized lot amicably requests workplace changes in hand-lettered writing, explaining their work stoppage to a surprised Duncan. Some are tired, others underutilized, while a few want official titles. With a little creativity and a lot of color, Duncan saves the day. Jeffers delivers energetic and playful illustrations, done in pencil, paint and crayon. The drawings are loose and lively, and with few lines, he makes his characters effectively emote. Clever spreads, such as Duncan’s “white cat in the snow” perfectly capture the crayons’ conundrum, and photographic representations of both the letters and coloring pages offer another layer of texture, lending to the tale’s overall believability.
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color . (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-25537-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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