Pet lovers, especially feline fanciers, will smile at this slice-of-life depiction of indoor cats.
Who says you have to step outdoors to feel the bustle of the city?
Three indoor cats named Nori, Yeti, and Flo fill their day with ordinary fun in a two-story loft apartment. Paper cut-out illustrations show the felines with their faces up against the glass, gazing at birds on the sidewalk. Barron also portrays outside scenes from the cats’ indoor viewpoint: racially diverse passersby looking in to wave hello to the cats, dogs on the pavement “do[ing] what dogs do” (i.e., pooping). Nori, Yeti, and Flo play with recently delivered boxes, bury their faces in their food during mealtime, bathe themselves while sprawled on the couch, and chase one another around the plants in the apartment. Upbeat, rhythmic verse sets a lively tone. The layers of paper and mixed media work to color the inside and outside worlds with equal depth and detail. Use of different angles shows the apartment and the outside city through multiple vantage points, from the floor beneath the couch where the trio hide from a delivery person to the elevated view of the city skyline from the upper windows. Readers are left with the sense that though these kitties never set a paw outside, their lives are nevertheless rich and vibrant.
Pet lovers, especially feline fanciers, will smile at this slice-of-life depiction of indoor cats. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781771476034
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlkids Books
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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