A timely, vibrant, and cheerfully illustrated reminder about the importance of balance.
An overachieving scout learns the value of saying no in this picture book.
Butterfly Brigade member Jackie, a confident girl with brown skin, curly hair, and glasses, is excited to attend her first scout jamboree. Her enthusiasm for earning patches puts her in the running for the “top scout overall” Golden Monarch Award. She comes up with a plan to enter the Great Jamboree storytelling competition, which would earn her two more patches—she just has to write a tale before the event. It seems simple enough, but when her fellow scouts ask for help fixing their banner and Ms. Cruz needs Jackie to dogsit, the girl finds herself in over her head. Luckily, Mommy’s there with sage advice: “To make people happy, I know how far you would go, / but there often” come times “when you just have to say ‘NO!’ ” For children (and adults) who struggle because they take on too many tasks, this valuable lesson—learned early—could save a lot of future tears. Jackie is a likable protagonist who strives to help everyone. She eventually learns that taking care of herself is just as vital. Ferguson’s humorous, rhyming stanzas scan smoothly throughout, and the invented scouting organization allows more children to identify with Jackie’s goals. The action-oriented illustrations that depict a brown-skinned cast are where Jackie really shines. Aryutova deftly captures the girl’s spirit and challenges in soft-edged, cartoon images.
A timely, vibrant, and cheerfully illustrated reminder about the importance of balance.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73616-213-2
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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