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LOOK OUT! IT'S A DRAGON!

Name: LOOK OUT! IT'S A DRAGON!
Author: Jonny Lambert
ISBN: 978-1-68010-081-5

by Jonny Lambert ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2018

A simple story with sophisticated illustrations that won’t fly over the heads of young readers.

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Sometimes dragons get too much respect.

Sapphire the dragon isn’t one for crushing castles, torching forests, or swiping damsels. She isn’t happy with her rocky roost either, so she flies off to discover more amenable climes. She does, in a meadow sweet with flowers and grasses and copses of birch. But she scares the dickens out of the meadow dwellers, all except the mouse she inadvertently lands upon, who in no short order tells the dragon she can’t stay. Sapphire tries to explain that she is a friendly dragon when a series of muddles makes her look like a bad old dragon after all, and she is banished from the meadow. Whereupon a flight of other, truly ill-meaning dragons descends on the meadow and torches the place before Sapphire returns to chase them off. The meadow now cinders, Sapphire, with the foxes, squirrels, rabbits, and mice riding on her back, flies off to find a new home. There’s little new here, but the artwork conveying the story is a natty collection of colors, collage, and brush strokes to keep the eye busy and build sympathy for Sapphire. Lambert isolates his characters against generous white space, which heightens the effectiveness of body language and interactions.

A simple story with sophisticated illustrations that won’t fly over the heads of young readers. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-68010-081-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S DRAGONS & MYTHICAL CREATURES | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
LIGHT THE SKY, FIREFLY
by Sheri Mabry Bestor ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert

- BOOK REVIEW
NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON'T
by Patricia Hegarty ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert

- BOOK REVIEW
SOAR HIGH, DRAGONFLY
by Sheri Mabry Bestor ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IMANI'S MOON

by JaNay Brown-Wood ; illustrated by Hazel Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 2014

While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...

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Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.

The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.

While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)