A beautifully told and illustrated circus story that casts a potent spell.
In this picture book, rapt garden plants enjoy fantastical circus acts performed by seeds.
In the arena of their garden, all the plants are waiting expectantly to see “The One and Only, / The Cirque des Graines!” Each of the three acts demonstrates the circus performers’ particular ways of self-seeding. First up are the maple seeds, the “Graines Nomades,” who wear “papery pantaloons” and put on a dazzling aerial display full of twisting, swirling arabesques. Next come the Acacias, contortionist acrobats who bend and warp themselves to send their seeds spinning. Finally, the Wisteria stage a rough-riding daredevil act in their “buckskin pods” to release their seeds. In her third picture book featuring growing things, Glenn—a former flower arranger at California’s famed Chez Panisse restaurant—again blends botanical realism with a magical atmosphere. The text, with its onomatopoeia and poetic diction, deftly enacts the seeds’ kinetic performances: “Maple tree whirlybirds / Hover and hum with a / Sibilant sound.” The author’s enchanting watercolor illustrations dance across the page in lovely shades that capture both the artistry and the strength of the performers.
A beautifully told and illustrated circus story that casts a potent spell.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Apologue Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color.
Duncan wants to draw, but instead of crayons, he finds a stack of letters listing the crayons’ demands in this humorous tale.
Red is overworked, laboring even on holidays. Gray is exhausted from coloring expansive spaces (elephants, rhinos and whales). Black wants to be considered a color-in color, and Peach? He’s naked without his wrapper! This anthropomorphized lot amicably requests workplace changes in hand-lettered writing, explaining their work stoppage to a surprised Duncan. Some are tired, others underutilized, while a few want official titles. With a little creativity and a lot of color, Duncan saves the day. Jeffers delivers energetic and playful illustrations, done in pencil, paint and crayon. The drawings are loose and lively, and with few lines, he makes his characters effectively emote. Clever spreads, such as Duncan’s “white cat in the snow” perfectly capture the crayons’ conundrum, and photographic representations of both the letters and coloring pages offer another layer of texture, lending to the tale’s overall believability.
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-25537-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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