Readers may find this book confusing and difficult to follow, though it does effectively evoke the turbulence of both a...
Rabbit, Alex’s “most favourite stuffed toy,” has hopped out the window and is now gone. In a city flooded after days of endless rain, Alex sets out to rescue Rabbit.
The river has burst its banks, the dam is overflowing, and the water is rising. Amid this chaotic setting—depicted in equally chaotic mixed-media artwork—Alex climbs into a watermelon boat to find Rabbit. Alex appears to be a white child roughly sketched out in pencil, the outline cut out, and then collaged. Told from the child’s point of view, the book is more a description of the people, animals, objects, and situations encountered along the way than it is a story. A cat is stuck on a roof with nothing to eat. A woman and her dog are cooking on top of their house. Shops are being looted. Objects and memories are being washed away forever. Confusion reigns, and the only thing Alex can do is continue the search for Rabbit. At times arbitrary, at times whimsical, at times scary, the story meanders along with Alex. Eventually, Rabbit is found, and the two friends climb up a twisting ladder and end up back home. Alex wishes for blue skies and sunshine so a tree can be planted and the birds can come back when the tree grows. The text is set in a variety of typefaces and styles, as chaotic as the artwork and the situation.
Readers may find this book confusing and difficult to follow, though it does effectively evoke the turbulence of both a cityscape and a child’s emotions after a flood. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-74331-007-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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