An ambitious foray into the world of words, labels, and social justice, sure to provoke conversation.
When words are just too much….
Luna and Zion, two dark-skinned kids, are watching TV when they become overwhelmed by big, difficult words that represent hard-to-understand concepts. “Words like ‘pandemic’ and ‘homelessness.’ ‘Inequality’ and ‘immigration.’ ” Appealing, softly rounded cartoons accompany text that leans heavily on the figurative language as Zion counts the syllables (“the words a wad of gum too big to chew”) and Luna builds the words in towers of alphabet blocks that topple over. The two decide to work together to solve the problem, but they need help, so they enlist the help of diverse neighborhood children and even some adults to help them write new words on banners and signs—courage, strength, freedom—and march in a parade. Attached to kites, the celebratory words rise into the sky, and the children even paint a mural of inspiring individuals. While the goals of this book—to help children focus on the positive and build strength—are admirable, the execution doesn’t quite work, as the text wanders too far into the abstract and ultimately provides substitutions for the difficult words rather than a true understanding of what they mean. Still, the idea that children can channel their frustration with the world into action is profoundly important, and this selection provides an opening to discuss big ideas like equity in a comforting context. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An ambitious foray into the world of words, labels, and social justice, sure to provoke conversation. (author’s note, information about the people depicted in the mural) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781665900324
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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