Both lovely and deeply empathetic.
When old age takes its toll on Grandpa’s memory, Noah learns to value every moment with him.
Noah’s summer days with Grandpa are full of fun activities. They boom out a loud song together as they make morning coffee. More songs fill the air as they walk the dog before breakfast; when they return home, they get to eat Grandma’s special cinnamon French toast. One morning, Grandpa forgets how to cut his French toast and can’t remember who Noah is. Noah runs out of the house, a painful lump in his throat. Fortunately, Grandma is able to explain that Grandpa gets confused sometimes. “We have to appreciate what he still has.” Noah goes ahead, walking the dog by himself, feeding the birds, and plunking out one of Grandpa’s favorite tunes on the piano. Grandpa suddenly appears, his bright old self, singing the song at the top of his lungs. Levine treats his sensitive subject with simple pathos. Kath depicts a loving white trio; Noah’s parents are not in evidence, letting readers imagine either that he is a regular overnight visitor or that he lives with his grandparents. She uses color subtly, graying her movement-filled line-and-watercolor paintings for those moments when Grandpa forgets and filling them with color when he remembers. Readers who also find themselves with cognitively failing loved ones would do well to heed Noah’s wisdom as he plans “to go for as long as the song would last.”
Both lovely and deeply empathetic. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7624-5906-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Totes adorbs.
A cuddly, squishy pug’s puggy-wuggy diary.
Equipped with both #pugunicorn and #pughotdog outfits, pug Baron von Bubbles (aka Bub) is the kind of dog that always dresses to impress. Bub also makes lots of memorable faces, such as the “Hey, you’re not the boss of me!” expression aimed at Duchess, the snooty pink house cat. Some of Bub’s favorite things include skateboarding, a favorite teddy, and eating peanut butter. Bub also loves Bella, who adopted Bub from a fair—it was “love at first sniff.” Together, Bub and Bella do a lot of arts and crafts. Their latest project: entering Bella’s school’s inventor challenge by making a super-duper awesome rocket. But, when the pesky neighborhood squirrel, Nutz, makes off with Bub’s bear, Bub accidentally ruins their project. How will they win the contest? More importantly, how will Bella ever forgive him? May’s cutesy, full-color cartoon art sets the tone for this pug-tastic romp for the new-to–chapter-books crowd. Emojilike faces accentuate Bub’s already expressive character design. Bub’s infectious first-person narration pushes the silly factor off the charts. In addition to creating the look and feel of a diary, the lined paper helps readers follow the eight-chapter story. Most pages have fewer than five sentences, often broken into smaller sections. Additional text appears in color-coded speech bubbles. Bella presents white.
Totes adorbs. (Fiction. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-53003-2
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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