Any adult who has ever read to a group of preschoolers will grin with delight over these familiar antics, and regular...
Link nursery rhymes with storytimes, add animal characters and whimsical illustrations, and voilà: a rollicking, rhyming story.
It opens with: “Make way for the readers, / the riders, the rollers, / arriving in backpacks, / on bikes, and in strollers.” Assorted animals parade up to the gate adorned with the sign “Miss Bingo Storytime.” Miss Bingo is a singing flamingo who shares tales of kittens with mittens, Miss Muffet and her tuffet, and other favorite rhymes. The group raps to “The Cat and the Fiddle,” and Miss Bingo honks for the little ones to stretch high and low during a break. Oh no! The crocodile accidentally treads on mouse Annabelle’s toe. She makes a fuss, and storytime stops—until fox Rory reads her a slightly altered Mother Goose rhyme (“Annabelle Mousey-kin ran up the clock”). The colored-pencil illustrations have just the right amount of whimsy to fully entertain readers, who will love spotting familiar favorites in Miss Bingo’s backyard library. Miss Bingo wears a green dress, red eyeglasses on a pearl neck chain, and a jazzy green boater hat, and the other animals are just as jauntily attired. In particular, Rufus, the clumsy croc, sports a black tank top and red ball cap worn backward.
Any adult who has ever read to a group of preschoolers will grin with delight over these familiar antics, and regular storytimers will enjoy seeing this favorite activity depicted . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-1851-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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