This daring approach to the picture book may find an audience of philosophical adults and children who take pleasure in the...
Beckmeyer’s first picture book takes readers on a circular journey around a mysterious island.
This parable, rendered in richly textured crayon, follows five friends who “wonder about the other side of the island” they dwell on, so they set out to paddle around to it. A failed landing leaves four friends, who try to cut through dense forest haunted by big cats, leaving three friends who build a long and precarious slide. Structures resembling roller coasters and Seattle’s Space Needle lure others to the island, and these newcomers carouse in party hats and develop it beyond recognition. At the end, one last friend tries, again, to find the wild side of the island, a venture that ends in a chaotic black scribble that leaves readers with far more questions than it answers. Every reader may come away from this curious and quiet book with a different message, and the deeper meanings are an intriguing challenge to parse. One might ask why the characters are dark pink, purple, orange, grayish-brown, and light pink and what their genders are. Who are they, and why are they on this island? In addition to the beautiful and skillful yet childlike illustrations, the text has a certain elegance, excellent pacing helping to carry readers through the exceptionally long picture book.
This daring approach to the picture book may find an audience of philosophical adults and children who take pleasure in the unusual. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5485-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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