With humor, heart, and oodles of child appeal, this tale models a flawed but devoted parent’s mastery of love languages.
When a young girl seems unable to get her father’s attention, a simple question brings it back.
Dad chats with a friend at the supermarket, talks on the phone while cooking, and texts while the young protagonist dons pajamas. Feeling neglected, the child wonders what will happen if he runs out of words: “Will you have any left for me?” The father’s expression registers guilt and embarrassment. With unruly dark hair and a massive upper body ending in tiny feet, he’s a robust yet comical and affable character. He explains that if faced with a language deficit, he would visit the Elves’ Word Factory; upon seeing the containers of “small talk” and “dad jokes,” he’d select “infinity” to guarantee a steady supply. But what if he gets lost on his way back? The child asks a series of “what ifs” as she enacts various incredibly flexible poses on her bed, a stuffed rabbit mirroring her acrobatics—all set against uncluttered white pages. By contrast, detailed, mixed-media settings portray Dad’s increasingly outlandish scenarios of his journey home: He builds a rocket, rides a narwhal, and drinks a shrinking potion so he can fit on a mouse-led rescue boat. Ultimately, loving words and the dramatic reveal of the “infinity” bottle amaze and delight the daughter—and readers. The child is light-skinned; Dad is brown-skinned.
With humor, heart, and oodles of child appeal, this tale models a flawed but devoted parent’s mastery of love languages. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781419766886
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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