An enchanting debut that captures the magic of nighttime backyard music.
The sounds of night lull young listeners to sleep in this vibrant debut illustrated children’s book from author/illustrator Weiss.
Evening approaches, and children put away their toys and get ready for bed. As they prepare for sleep, they see lights through their window—not just the moon and stars, “but sparkles of light, / glowing golden / and bright, / as fireflies flicker / and twirl in the night!” These aren’t the only nocturnal visitors: The poem’s narrator also describes luna moths, frogs, songbirds at night, crickets, and other humming insects. After reading storybooks and getting tucked into bed, the kids listen to creature sounds—a lullaby that ushers them off to sleep. An author’s note describes this book as having started as an art project, and Weiss’ acrylic-on-canvas paintings are absolutely an eye-catching draw. Her stylized, full-color images give even realistic settings a magical, whimsical feel, whether they feature curvy houses with conical roofs, a tricycle that looks meant for fairies to ride, or an hourglass-shaped cat with a spiral tail looking out a nighttime window. Weiss makes great use of the musical concept, putting fireflies directly onto a musical staff on the front and end pages. In one starry two-page spread, musical notes float in the night sky, forming treble and bass clef symbols in a wispy mist. On the final page, notes dance across the grass and river, while trees seem to sway rhythmically in the background. The bold, bright colors depicted in the beginning pages’ sunset are soon replaced by pages dominated with blues and purples, but they never feel dreary; while the deeper hues offer a sleepy feel, it’s too dreamlike to ever be dull. The poetry flows beautifully, as well, its scansion as steady and calming as the lullaby it mimics. The soothing tempo seems perfectly designed for lap readers listening as an adult rocks them to the beat of the poem’s music. Some of the more challenging vocabulary words (nocturnal, symphony) are defined for independent readers in a short glossary.
An enchanting debut that captures the magic of nighttime backyard music.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781737586906
Page Count: 32
Publisher: TricycleBooks.com
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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