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BOUNDLESS SKY

Name: BOUNDLESS SKY
Author: Amanda Addison
ISBN: 978-1-911373-67-4

by Amanda Addison ; illustrated by Manuela Adreani ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2020

This attempt at a parallel-migration narrative doesn’t quite cohere.

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A bird and a young girl travel across the world, meeting at the common end of their journeys.

On a crisp autumn morning in the north of England, Alfie, a young white boy, greets a bird in his garden. She flies away and begins her journey across fields, seas, and mountains. In the desert, when the bird is exhausted, she comes to an oasis where a brown-skinned girl named Leila, dressed in a headscarf and flowing dress, offers her some water. The bird then continues her journey above the jungle and across a river, until finally she crosses the plains and grasslands to the place that she will stay during the cold European winter. At the end of the season—which, in southern Africa, is summer—the bird retraces her journey back to England. But when she stops at the desert oasis, as she always does, she finds Leila’s house abandoned, and Leila is nowhere to be found. The bird calls for Leila, but the girl doesn’t answer, and the bird flies on. At the end of the bird’s journey, she returns to Alfie only to find that he has a new neighbor: Leila, the bird’s missing friend. Addison’s poetic text renders the bird’s journey fascinating and awe-inspiring. However, Leila’s parallel migration story lacks the same detail and care as the bird’s: Other than a hint in the illustration in the form of a picture of dark bodies huddled in a boat on a stormy sea, readers are given no sense of what Leila has been through or where she has gone. The result is a tenuous association that makes the book’s ending fall flat.

This attempt at a parallel-migration narrative doesn’t quite cohere. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: March 3, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-911373-67-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Lantana

Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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edited by Eric Carle

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edited by Eric Carle

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by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)