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YOU ARE MY FAVORITE COLOR

Name: YOU ARE MY FAVORITE COLOR
Author: Gillian Sze
ISBN: 978-0-593-20310-1

by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Niña Mata ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2022

Lovely.

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A light-skinned caregiver shares with their children the wonder of their dark brown skin as the youngest grows from newborn to toddler.

“When you ask me why your skin is brown, / I will tell you that you are my favorite color.” The caregiver and a child welcome a new baby, and on the next page, the trio cuddle against a warm backdrop of family photos as the text continues, “I will say that your skin was decided long, / long ago. Time was just waiting for you.” Spread after spread shows the new baby growing and exploring their world with the older child by their side, and all the while, the text describes brawny bears, singing cellos, reaching sequoias, and more to prime the children’s understanding of their unique personal canvases. Sze’s text unspools a letter of love—a caregiver’s love and the self-love it inspires—as Mata’s illustrations combine gentle earth tones with vibrant, playful splashes to capture all the family adventures of a little one growing up. This is a sweet, languorous celebration of brown skin in all its infinite shades and of multiracial, multifaceted families. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Lovely. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: June 7, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-20310-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
I DREW A HEART
by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Naoko Stoop

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LITTLE GREEN ENVELOPE
by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Claudine Crangle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY LOVE FOR YOU IS ALWAYS
by Gillian Sze ; illustrated by Michelle Lee

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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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)