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THE BEAR AND THE WILDCAT

Name: THE BEAR AND THE WILDCAT
Author: Kazumi Yumoto
ISBN: 978-1-877467-70-7

by Kazumi Yumoto ; illustrated by Komako Sakai ; translated by Cathy Hirano ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2023

Quietly contemplative, mingling hope and healing, this is a book that will offer comfort to many.

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A single sympathetic soul can make all the difference.

Bear’s friend, a little bird, is dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. Yesterday he was alive, and now he is not. Bear constructs a lovely box, places the bird in it, and carries it everywhere, but the other animals disapprove. “It may be hard but you have to forget about him.” Upon hearing this, Bear shuts himself away for days. When he emerges, he meets a wildcat, who hears his story, acknowledges that he must have loved his friend, and, by playing music, helps Bear to heal. This lyrical, unconventionally beautiful Japanese import reveals text both spare and superbly polished (“His downy feathers were the colour of coral and his tiny black beak gleamed like onyx”). Black images appear on the page as if they were scrubbed away from the surrounding beige, like relief paintings released from their claustrophobic borders. The sole other color, pink, is revealed only after Bear allows himself to remember the good times with his friend. As he finds himself able to let go, the pink infuses the flowers on a grave and in the field and a ribbon on a tambourine that Bear at last learns to play. (This book was reviewed digitally; this review has been updated for factual accuracy.)

Quietly contemplative, mingling hope and healing, this is a book that will offer comfort to many. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-877467-70-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Gecko Press

Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LETTERS
by Kazumi Yumoto & translated by Cathy Hirano

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SPRING TONE
by Kazumi Yumoto

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FRIENDS
by Kazumi Yumoto & translated by Cathy Hirano

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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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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

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With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)