A lovely homage to nature.
A curious mountain boy follows a trickle of water all the way to the sea.
Young Cam tells his grandfather that he wishes he could see the sea. “One day we will go there,” is the reply. One spring morning, Cam notices a rivulet trickling through the pine woods. “Come with me,” the trickle sings to him. “I will take you to the sea.” Cam follows the trickle, which joins a creek and runs down the mountainside. The creek meets a stream, where trout leap and beckon Cam. The stream becomes a river that flows through farms with ducks and cows and dogs and then a town. Frogs in the river encourage Cam to continue his journey. The river widens, full of ships big and small. The river sings to Cam, who runs past some wharves and onto the sand dunes. He has reached the sea! It’s “wild and blue and beautiful…and it [goes] on forever,” and it sings the grandest song of all. Back home that night, Cam tells his grandfather about his adventure, and grandfather again replies, “One day we will go there”—leaving readers to wonder whether Cam’s adventure was real or imaginary. Regardless, Cowley neatly modulates Cam’s adventure, sentences that build and accrete like that rivulet taking readers on the journey. Andrews’ diverse landscapes are solidly composed, shifting angles but maintaining an earthy, muted palette.
A lovely homage to nature. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-776572-53-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Rock on, Rocket! (Early reader. 5-7)
Into the woods….
Hills’ canine picture-book protagonist, Rocket, learned how to read in his first book and now stars in an early reader designed for kids learning to read, too. The story opens when Rocket is charmed by a pink butterfly that lands on his nose, and he follows it from spread to spread until it “flies into the forest.” In contrast with prior spreads that featured ample white, open space, the ensuing illustrations of the forest are dark and saturated. A full-bleed double-page spread shows Rocket small and low at the bottom of the verso with the forest before him: “The forest is very dark. The trees are very tall. Rocket does not want to go into the forest.” After some hemming and hawing, Rocket’s desire to find the butterfly overpowers his fear of the forest, and he walks among the tall trees, looking at pine cones, ferns, and, finally, the butterfly. Necessary redundancy between art and text befits the early-reader form and allows children to find cues in the art to support decoding of the controlled text, but Hills’ deep experience as a picture-book artist enriches his attention to framing, pacing, and layout. The result is an exemplary early reader in words and images, with a happy ending, to boot.
Rock on, Rocket! (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7347-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
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