A thoughtful pandemic story from the perspective of a relatable protagonist.
A dog adapts to the Covid-19 landscape in this picture book.
At the start of the pandemic, a small white-and-cream dog named Jake is frightened: “Mom and Dad were using different words than I’d ever heard before, like virus and lockdown.” The canine notices the streets are quiet and his favorite places, like the dog park, are closed. Although Jake attends canine school online, he misses seeing his pals in person. He feels comforted when Mom “explained…what was happening…and wanted me to know that it was okay to be scared.” Jake and his family enjoy at-home activities like charades and baking. He finds purpose in helping others, such as sharing his homegrown veggies because “simple acts of kindness can really make someone’s day.” After Mom tells Jake about the Covid-19 vaccine, the dog feels optimistic that “life would be back to normal.” Jake’s experiences during the pandemic will be familiar to many young readers. Hardy portrays the pooch’s struggles with anxiety and loneliness in a considerate, heartfelt manner. Wally_LL’s adorable, vivid illustrations present engaging, sometimes silly scenes, including Jake practicing yoga. The spreads feature fun details like Jake’s squirrel friend Stuart. Some depictions are anthropomorphic (Jake mows the lawn). Others portray the main character as a pet, such as being walked on a leash. Jake’s human parents, shown from the neck down, are biracial, and his neighbor uses a wheelchair. People in background scenes are diverse.
A thoughtful pandemic story from the perspective of a relatable protagonist.Pub Date: May 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73-632350-2
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Christine Hardy DBA Jake's World
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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