Bright in mood, message, and hue, this is a winner.
With moral support and practice, anything is possible!
“Skate! says Esther. / Stoked? says Chester. / Totally! say Hester and Sylvester. / Never, says Lester.” At the Beachside Skate Park, four cats are excited to use their skateboards, but one gray kitty is not. It seems Lester thinks skateboarding is “scary.” The other kitties gently cajole Lester to give it a try and practice. They pop a helmet on their reluctant companion’s head and say, “Please”—but when Lester says, “no” again, they roll into the park and have a “RAD!” time while Lester peers over the wall at them. When Lester concedes, “Maybe,” the others enthusiastically respond with “awesome,” “gnarly,” and “cool!” Lester doesn’t succeed the first time, but the four skateboarding veterans encourage the wobbly cat, and they all celebrate when Lester finally prevails. Everyone has a great time. Then Lester sees some surfers and suggests they try that tomorrow—but: “No, no, no, no way! say Esther, Chester, Hester, and Sylvester.” Bustard’s story is told entirely in her characters’ one-word exclamations and dialogue tags, using type style rather than quotation marks to denote their speech. It’s easy to follow, as Wiseman’s cartoons supply an unmistakable visual narrative. Cartoon kitties of various colors in helmets and streetwear skate in a park decorated in bright graffiti. Young listeners will identify with Lester’s fears and will soon be able to read the story on their own; as Chester says: “Righteous!”
Bright in mood, message, and hue, this is a winner. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4101-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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
Safe to creep on by.
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
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