The title says it all.
Instead of getting specific answers to each of her many questions, Isabella learns from Grandma that, often, gratitude is enough
The sole characters in the book first appear on the cover: light-skinned and rosy-cheeked and smiling at each other. The opening double-page spread is more dramatic: The pair’s dark silhouettes huddle at the top of an equally dark bluff, near a wildly crashing sea of broad, blue brush strokes. After asserting that her grandmother knows everything, Isabella asks her first question: “Tell me, why does the sea stop at the sand, instead of swallowing up the whole town with its watery mouth?” Grandma is silent, but with each page turn, Isabella asks further questions, which will resonate with most children—questions about our world that have been pondered for generations. Each page turn also reveals artwork that perfectly matches the text’s ability to combine serious wondering, humor, and grace. When Grandma finally speaks, she lets Isabella know that there is a way to deal with “all of these mysteries.” Together, the two of them shout thank-you’s to the sea, the wind, and other natural wonders. The sun sets over their Mediterranean-looking village (this is a Spanish import), and they head home. At bedtime, Isabella asks another unanswerable question, but this time, she has a ready response to the mystery. Too many grandparent-grandchild books are mawkishly sentimental. This one is reverent and transcendent.
The title says it all. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5524-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.”
The cover’s glowing golden stars are but a small hint of the parent-child love inside.
In this companion book to the creators’ I Love You, My Little Unicorn (2022), a world full of digitally created dinosaurs illustrated in eye-catching colors dominates the pages. From the start, it’s clear that dinosaur parents have the same hopes and dreams for their offspring that human parents do. Readers don’t have to be dinosaur fans to smile when the parent-and-child dinosaur pairs playfully interact and share loving glances. Take special note of the ankylosauruses, whose tails arc to form a heart beneath a sky filled with heart-shaped clouds. The text in verse shares words of unconditional parental love and support and wisdom (“please remember all these things / that I want you to know”), appropriate for humans and dinos alike. “Roar with all your might!” “Spread your wings and fly.” “Use your voice, and ask for help.” There’s even a caveat that some “days will be dark / and other shades of gray.” But “there’s always brightness up ahead.” While the loving sentiments in the storytelling are clear, words are sometimes inverted to make the rhyme work, and the verse doesn’t always follow a consistent meter, but prereading will let the story shine during quiet snuggle times.
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728268361
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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