Provides quiet assurance to those who recognize this feeling as well as a model for supporting a friend. (Picture book. 3-6)
In her authorial debut, Québecois illustrator Godbout explores depression through the movements of a kangaroo.
At first, the marsupial, clad in a short, yellow jumpsuit, is seen merrily jumping over a cluster of pink flowers. The mood quickly shifts, however, as a gray cloud settles over Maloo’s head. The ’roo’s posture compresses, and then Maloo descends into the dark burrow of a wombat. Even cake doesn’t help restore Maloo’s cheer. Hopping gives way to small steps that are counted aloud, offering a sense of the length of the mood: “Seven steps. Eight steps. Nine steps.” Five pages later, Maloo has reached 1,000. Friends try to help—playing in the water, turning on fans to propel Maloo into the sky. It is only when they launch their pal upward from a blanket that the fog lifts. Soft, warm scenes, rendered in pastels and colored pencil against a spacious white background, create a safe environment to discuss sadness. From the shift to a darker palette, the tree that closes in on creatures, and the serious faces, readers will understand that the protagonist is suffering; the spare text, written from the friends’ perspectives, describes the change in locomotion but allows viewers to identify the emotions. Although the friends are steadfast, three spreads depict Maloo striving in midair alone, suggesting that the individual has a role in healing.
Provides quiet assurance to those who recognize this feeling as well as a model for supporting a friend. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6664-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.”
The cover’s glowing golden stars are but a small hint of the parent-child love inside.
In this companion book to the creators’ I Love You, My Little Unicorn (2022), a world full of digitally created dinosaurs illustrated in eye-catching colors dominates the pages. From the start, it’s clear that dinosaur parents have the same hopes and dreams for their offspring that human parents do. Readers don’t have to be dinosaur fans to smile when the parent-and-child dinosaur pairs playfully interact and share loving glances. Take special note of the ankylosauruses, whose tails arc to form a heart beneath a sky filled with heart-shaped clouds. The text in verse shares words of unconditional parental love and support and wisdom (“please remember all these things / that I want you to know”), appropriate for humans and dinos alike. “Roar with all your might!” “Spread your wings and fly.” “Use your voice, and ask for help.” There’s even a caveat that some “days will be dark / and other shades of gray.” But “there’s always brightness up ahead.” While the loving sentiments in the storytelling are clear, words are sometimes inverted to make the rhyme work, and the verse doesn’t always follow a consistent meter, but prereading will let the story shine during quiet snuggle times.
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728268361
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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