If (pigs and) bears could fly—but try as this book might, it can’t quite get off the ground.
A dream to fly is fulfilled in an unexpected fashion.
Ursa the bear stands out from all her classmates due to her exceptionally vivid imagination. Where others draw in black and white, Ursa paints in full color. Where others limit the sizes of their projects to what can easily fit in their hands, Ursa constructs a solar system that radiates from her head. Nighttime dreams awaken an even bigger and better goal. Ursa will fly. She carefully observes animals and machines that fly, then diagrams, builds, and tries, only to meet with repeated failure. Then a sign for a stage show in New York City’s Central Park reawakens her ambitions, and with visions of the eponymous constellation in her head, she auditions as “the most dynamic shooting star anyone had ever seen.” Success comes, albeit on the stage with glowing lights overhead and flowers strewn at her feet rather than in the air. Marcero, in her debut picture book, has constructed a little story about imagination in which success comes to those who try, try, and try again. Visions of nighttime travel amid the stars have morphed into stage stardom. Unfortunately, the mostly darkly toned artwork and the bears’ oddly shaped, squared-off heads lack appeal, and the busy pages require sustained viewing to decode.
If (pigs and) bears could fly—but try as this book might, it can’t quite get off the ground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4413-1881-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peter Pauper Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends.
Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!
Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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