This magical, imaginative, humorously illustrated tale may quell the fears of readers scared of storms.
A boy who is frightened of thunder embarks on an amazing journey to find out what causes the roar in this debut picture book.
The narrator, a bespectacled White boy with short brown hair and a feline companion, hears a boom in the sky and gets nervous. But despite hiding under the covers, the kid feels no better. After recalling other storms, he sets off, determined to identify who’s behind the roar and tell the villain to stop. With a balloon harness worthy of a Pixar movie, the narrator floats into the clouds, discovering ballerina sky pirates and intrepid firefighters before realizing that the rumble comes from an angry dinosaur mama, whose children have destroyed her pie. After the resourceful mama makes another one and the dino kids share a slice with the narrator, the boy returns home, no longer scared of thunder. Weaver’s opening is true to childhood fears of storms, making the whimsical journey feel even more enchanting. The author’s rhyming text scans well, featuring some challenging vocabulary words (scramble, oodles, scrumptious) for newly independent readers. Weaver’s digital cartoon illustrations employ bright colors, even during the storm. The boy’s cat appears in almost every spread, sometimes costumed or mischievous but always providing insight into the narrator’s emotions. A recipe for berry pie at the end, best made with an adult’s help, may encourage young readers to bake dinosaur desserts during tempests.
This magical, imaginative, humorously illustrated tale may quell the fears of readers scared of storms.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73626-730-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: A Little Offbeat Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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