A guileless parable about having your cake and eating it too.
What a difference an S makes—Monkey’s living large on a “dessert” island, and Fox is starving on a “desert” island.
It’s chocolate cake, frosting, and berries versus dirt, rocks, and inedible plants. Monkey indulges on the enormous sweet treat and hasn’t any worries. Fox doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from—until one day a berry floats by. The berry’s loss is inconsequential to Monkey but a lifesaver for Fox, who plants it and eagerly awaits the sustaining food source. A sudden rainstorm brings unexpected havoc to Monkey’s idyllic existence but provides water for Fox and the berry seed. As the sugary dessert island disintegrates in the downpour, Fox’s seed sends up shoots. Monkey panics while Fox celebrates. The iced four-layer cake is reduced to a single berry, and Monkey is in serious trouble. Fox spies the desperate, soggy Monkey and sacrifices the newly grown plant. Extending it as a lifeline to Monkey, Fox acquires a friend. From solitary existences to shared companionship and resources, the new friends realize how lucky they are. Zhu’s simple declarative sentences slowly reveal the discrepancies between the protagonists and their respective habitats and philosophies. Along with the sympathetic characters, Zhu’s bright and gentle artwork highlights the changing conditions of the story with the same economy of expression as his text. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 18.1% of actual size.)
A guileless parable about having your cake and eating it too. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-76330-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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