A warm, whimsical story of familial connection.
In Dorrill’s illustrated children’s book, a monster and a young boy create a found family.
Deep in the forest, an ogre-like monster named Brunt lives a peaceful life tending to his garden and watching movies in his cozy cave. He wishes that he had friends, but his frightening appearance has kept him from approaching other humans who might find his short horns and strange, reptilian tail too scary. Then, a 7-year-old human boy named Eggbert gets lost in Brunt’s part of the forest. He’s the sole survivor of a boating accident that killed his family; he doesn’t have a home to call his own, but he’s made a life for himself in a nearby village, depending on the kindness of locals who were willing to feed him and teach him different skills. When Brunt encounters him, Eggbert is afraid at first, but then he strikes up a conversation with the monster, asking, “What is your favorite dessert?” From the moment they talk about peach cobbler, Brunt and Eggbert become fast friends; they spend an idyllic day in each other’s company, and quickly decide to become a family. However, they soon face challenges when Brunt ventures into the human world. Dorrill’s picture book offers a heartwarming tale about choosing and protecting one’s family and overcoming mountainous odds. Peinador’s textured, folksy illustrations place the two main characters at the center of the story. Brunt touchingly cares about Eggbert’s well-being enough to educate himself and find a way to sell his pottery to buoy their finances; Eggbert puts aside his own prejudices to befriend a lonely monster, and even puts himself at risk to protect him.
A warm, whimsical story of familial connection.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781962202930
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Balloon Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A delightful story of love and hope.
Families are formed everywhere—including large metropolitan mass-transit systems!
Baby Kevin, initially known as “Danny ACE Doe,” was found in the New York City’s 14th Street subway station, which serves the A-C-E lines, by one of his future fathers, Danny. Kevin’s other father, Pete (author Mercurio), serves as the narrator, explaining how the two men came to add the newborn to their family. Readers are given an abridged version of the story from Danny and Pete’s point of view as they work to formally adopt Kevin and bring him home in time for Christmas. The story excels at highlighting the determination of loving fathers while still including realistic moments of hesitation, doubt, and fear that occur for new and soon-to-be parents. The language is mindful of its audience (for example using “piggy banks” instead of “bank accounts” to discuss finances) while never patronizing young readers. Espinosa’s posterlike artwork—which presents the cleanest New York readers are ever likely to see—extends the text and makes use of unexpected angles to heighten emotional scenes and moments of urgency. The diversity of skin tones, ages, and faces (Danny and Pete both present white, and Kevin has light brown skin) befits the Big Apple. Family snapshots and a closing author’s note emphasize that the most important thing in any family is love. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.3-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 43% of actual size.)
A delightful story of love and hope. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-42754-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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