Bumpy text may make for a challenging read-aloud, but readers will pore over the enchanting visuals.
A love letter to the beach.
While most seaside tales are set in summertime, this offering glories in all the seasons. A family of four romps on the shore in summer, autumn, winter, and spring, complete with a polar plunge scene following a spread portraying them making their New Year’s Eve resolutions. The text is mostly delivered in rhyming verse, with a singsong cadence that begs to be read aloud, but it’s unfortunately interrupted by some awkward breaks in rhythm. The ear-pleasing couplet “When it’s warm, I jump the waves. / Low or high, I leap. I’m brave!” is followed by, “When it’s hot, I swim and float and sail in my Viking boat,” which seems to be missing a syllable and has no line break. Or, near book’s end: “The sun sets red behind the dunes. / The lighthouse sends its brightest beams,” which doesn’t seem to make any attempt at maintaining rhyme or rhythm. Still, the delightful, loose-lined images, reminiscent of the work of Quentin Blake or Simon James, will invite readers to pore over the pages and revel in the text’s unusual depiction of the beach throughout the year. The family is light-skinned; other beachgoers are diverse.
Bumpy text may make for a challenging read-aloud, but readers will pore over the enchanting visuals. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781536243628
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school...
The familiar theme of the challenges facing a new kid in town is given an original treatment by photographer Border in this book of photos of three-dimensional objects in a simple modeled landscape.
Peanut Butter is represented by a slice of white bread spread with the popular condiment. The other characters in the story—a hamburger with a pair of hot dogs in tow, a bowl of alphabet soup, a meatball jumping a rope of spaghetti, a carton of French fries and a pink cupcake—are represented by skillfully crafted models of these foods, anthropomorphized using simple wire construction. Rejected by each character in turn in his search for playmates, Peanut Butter discovers in the end that Jelly is his true match (not Cupcake, as the title suggests), perhaps because she is the only one who looks like him, being a slice of white bread spread with jelly. The friendly foods end up happily playing soccer together. Some parents may have trouble with the unabashedly happy depiction of carbs and American junk food (no carrots or celery sticks in this landscape), and others may find themselves troubled by the implication that friendship across difference is impossible.
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school experiences. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16773-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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