Tenderly nuanced.
A child experiences big emotions after their parents separate.
A loving family—Mommy, Daddy, and child—have a fun summer outing at the beach. Then, just as the waves wash in to claim the family’s sand castle, the parents say they won’t be living together anymore. The child is distraught, with feelings roiling inside them like the sea. The adults say, “Sometimes grown-ups separate….But parents are forever.” Autumn arrives, and then winter snow, and the child plays with Daddy at his new house and with Mommy on a sledding hill. The child continues to have big, sudden feelings about the breakup, but each time the parents provide reassurances that all emotions are valid. “We can’t stop our feelings, or the leaves from dropping...but we can catch them as they fall,” says Daddy. As the seasons change, life does as well (like Mommy having a new partner), and that knowledge frees the child’s mind. This book deftly compares emotions to nature and conveys the message that life goes on, ever changing and ever growing. The text and illustrations work harmoniously to provide examples and extend the metaphors. This one is ideal for young ones processing a big life change. Mommy is light-skinned, Daddy is brown-skinned, and the child has light brown skin; supporting characters display a wide variety of skin tones. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Tenderly nuanced. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68464-494-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Wow.
The stories of the births of the universe, the planet Earth, and a human child are told in this picture book.
Bauer begins with cosmic nothing: “In the dark / in the deep, deep dark / a speck floated / invisible as thought / weighty as God.” Her powerful words build the story of the creation of the universe, presenting the science in poetic free verse. First, the narrative tells of the creation of stars by the Big Bang, then the explosions of some of those stars, from which dust becomes the matter that coalesces into planets, then the creation of life on Earth: a “lucky planet…neither too far / nor too near…its yellow star…the Sun.” Holmes’ digitally assembled hand-marbled paper-collage illustrations perfectly pair with the text—in fact the words and illustrations become an inseparable whole, as together they both delineate and suggest—the former telling the story and the latter, with their swirling colors suggestive of vast cosmos, contributing the atmosphere. It’s a stunning achievement to present to readers the factual events that created the birth of the universe, the planet Earth, and life on Earth with such an expressive, powerful creativity of words paired with illustrations so evocative of the awe and magic of the cosmos. But then the story goes one brilliant step further and gives the birth of a child the same beginning, the same sense of magic, the same miracle.
Wow. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7883-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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