Roldán celebrates the social currency of cracking-good storytelling—and the expediency of a well-placed nap.
Juan, a red denizen of a colony of busy black ants, offsets his extreme indolence by enthralling his mates with picaresque tales of his grandfather’s derring-do.
Capable of 10 daily naps, Juan one day surprises everyone by appearing with “a stick between his feet with a little cloth bundle full of food.” He’s off to trace his grandfather’s paths, to “see the world” and return with “heaps of new stories to tell.” As hours pass, the ants speculate on Juan’s adventures, thereby imbuing him with increasing quantities of strength and bravery. A flash flood during Juan’s absence prompts ever greater heights of cogitation, as the ants envisage their newly crowned hero drowned. After the flood recedes, the ants decide to memorialize Juan by planting a flower at the base of a large willow tree. En route, a passing mosquito reports that Juan is actually asleep in that very tree, high up in a knothole. Indeed, the champion napper has slept through the flood, bedding down at the first hint of heavy clouds. Juan cleverly assuages the ants’ disappointment, springing down to share the bundle of food he’d packed while regaling them—yet again— with his grandfather’s escape from an eagle’s talons. Charmingly ant-ic black line drawings, accented with red, green, and yellow, pop against expansive white space. Dialogue is keyed in red type, enhancing the handsome overall design.
Roldán celebrates the social currency of cracking-good storytelling—and the expediency of a well-placed nap. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-939810-82-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Elsewhere Editions
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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