A weighty parable honoring the natural world, visually stunning but likely to leave youngsters cold.
A boy, saved by a panda mother and blessed by the forest, outwits a group of trappers who have captured the panda’s child.
Dreamy watercolors and narrative in verse tell the story of a baby boy who goes missing in a forest in what appears to be China. When he is found seven days later in a panda’s cave, villagers regard both panda and boy with great reverence, as the panda clearly kept him alive. Nine years later, a group of strangers arrives with horses, elephants, brocade and furs, and animals, including a baby panda in a bamboo cage—all gifts for “the great ruler Alexander.” As the horrified villagers look on, the boy begs to accompany the travelers, telling them that he knows how to keep the panda alive for their journey. Assuming the boy has betrayed the pandas to whom he owes everything, the villagers turn away, but the clever boy has a plan. This large-format, fully illustrated book has the trim size of a picture book, but its three chapters of verse, sophisticated vocabulary, and extensive symbolism suggest an audience of older children or even adults; it may struggle to find an audience. Illustrations vacillate between dreamscapes and hyper-realistic human and animal figures, while tiger imagery included early on foreshadows later events. The work is imbued with respect for the natural world, along with a certain unease in the telling and the violence of the outcome.
A weighty parable honoring the natural world, visually stunning but likely to leave youngsters cold. (Picture book. 8-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781915659057
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Otter-Barry
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
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
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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