by Jessica Souhami ; illustrated by Jessica Souhami ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2014
Modern boys who dream of athletic prowess should find this appealing.
In this retelling of a Japanese tale, a scrawny country boy named Kaito heads to Kyoto to enter a wrestling tournament.
He leaves his village filled with confidence about his chances against the “Champion Wrestlers” he hopes to compete against. He’s tempted to tickle a girl he meets along the way to make her spill the bucket she’s carrying on her head. She’s far stronger than he is, though, and doesn’t spill a drop. Her name is Hana, and she offers to help him prepare for the tournament. Kaito spends the next three weeks training in her cottage, then goes to Kyoto, where he wins the championship despite his small stature. There’s humor in the fact that Hana is stronger than Kaito, even after he’s crowned champion. The mixed-media collage of watercolor and pencil on brightly colored paper set against a white background works well with the book’s lighthearted tone. Souhami plays with the typeface, incorporating the text into the design to highlight parts of the story. The change in protagonist from the 13th-century tale’s mature warrior learning to be “invincible” to a puny boy able to defeat the outsized sumo wrestlers may strain readers’ suspension of disbelief.
Modern boys who dream of athletic prowess should find this appealing. (author’s note) (Picture book/folk tale. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84780-411-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
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by Justin Rhodes ; illustrated by Heather Dickinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2023
Pedestrian.
Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.
Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013
Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children...
A fizzy yet revealing romp through the toy world.
Though of standard picture-book size, Stein and illustrator Staake’s latest collaboration (Bugs Galore, 2012, etc.) presents a sweeping compendium of diversions for the young. From fairies and gnomes, race cars and jacks, tin cans and socks, to pots ’n’ pans and a cardboard box, Stein combs the toy kingdom for equally thrilling sources of fun. These light, tightly rhymed quatrains focus nicely on the functions characterizing various objects, such as “Floaty, bubbly, / while-you-wash toys” or “Sharing-secrets- / with-tin-cans toys,” rather than flatly stating their names. Such ambiguity at once offers Staake free artistic rein to depict copious items capable of performing those tasks and provides pre-readers ample freedom to draw from the experiences of their own toy chests as they scan Staake’s vibrant spreads brimming with chunky, digitally rendered objects and children at play. The sense of community and sharing suggested by most of the spreads contributes well to Stein’s ultimate theme, which he frames by asking: “But which toy is / the best toy ever? / The one most fun? / Most cool and clever?” Faced with three concluding pages filled with all sorts of indoor and outside toys to choose from, youngsters may be shocked to learn, on turning to the final spread, that the greatest one of all—“a toy SENSATION!”—proves to be “[y]our very own / imagination.”
Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6254-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake
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by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Peter Stein
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