This magical, imaginative, humorously illustrated tale may quell the fears of readers scared of storms.
A boy who is frightened of thunder embarks on an amazing journey to find out what causes the roar in this debut picture book.
The narrator, a bespectacled White boy with short brown hair and a feline companion, hears a boom in the sky and gets nervous. But despite hiding under the covers, the kid feels no better. After recalling other storms, he sets off, determined to identify who’s behind the roar and tell the villain to stop. With a balloon harness worthy of a Pixar movie, the narrator floats into the clouds, discovering ballerina sky pirates and intrepid firefighters before realizing that the rumble comes from an angry dinosaur mama, whose children have destroyed her pie. After the resourceful mama makes another one and the dino kids share a slice with the narrator, the boy returns home, no longer scared of thunder. Weaver’s opening is true to childhood fears of storms, making the whimsical journey feel even more enchanting. The author’s rhyming text scans well, featuring some challenging vocabulary words (scramble, oodles, scrumptious) for newly independent readers. Weaver’s digital cartoon illustrations employ bright colors, even during the storm. The boy’s cat appears in almost every spread, sometimes costumed or mischievous but always providing insight into the narrator’s emotions. A recipe for berry pie at the end, best made with an adult’s help, may encourage young readers to bake dinosaur desserts during tempests.
This magical, imaginative, humorously illustrated tale may quell the fears of readers scared of storms.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73626-730-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: A Little Offbeat Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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