Reading fun for robot fans and naptime naysayers alike, with a sly wink at the end.
A busy bot needs to recharge.
Harper is a little robot with a serious case of FOMO who resists recharging at school. Miller creates a classroom setting complete with rest mats in pastel-colored cartoons, and when all of the other little bots lie down on their mats and plug themselves in to recharge, Harper unplugs and dashes off to play. The resulting lack of charging ends up making Harper’s battery run low, to humorous effect. The increasingly sluggish Harper has mishaps and mix-ups—feeding the canvas and painting the fish, dozing off while trying to keep up with others, and so on—all while continuing to refuse to recharge. Amusingly, Harper’s classmates join their teacher with their own pleas and remonstrations, and readers see a crabby Harper surrounded by exclamation-point–laden speech balloons. Harper’s refusal culminates in a fit worthy of Mo Willems’ Pigeon in which the bot appears in front of a red background, yelling, “I DON’T NEED TO CHARGE!” But finally, Harper relents, the teacher tucks and plugs the little bot in, and Harper finally recharges. Lo and behold, when Harper is fully charged, it’s cleanup time, and Harper decides a little more recharging time may be in order after all. Readers will enjoy taking in this technological twist on a familiar setting and marvel at all the differences displayed in bot construction. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Reading fun for robot fans and naptime naysayers alike, with a sly wink at the end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-55330-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
Animated and educational.
A hare and a ground squirrel banter about the differences between related animals that are often confused for one another.
Jack is “no Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail,” but a “H-A-R-E, hare!” Like sheep and goats, or turtles and tortoises, rabbits and hares may look similar, but hares are bigger, their fur changes color in the winter, and they are born with their eyes wide open. As the ground squirrel (not to be mistaken for a chipmunk (even though Jack cheekily calls it “Chippie”) and Jack engage in playful discussion about animals, a sneaky coyote prowls after them through the Sonoran Desert. This picture book conveys the full narrative in spirited, speech-bubbled dialogue set on expressive illustrations of talking animals. Dark outlines around the characters make their shapes pop against the softly blended colors of the desert backgrounds. Snappy back-and-forth paired with repetition and occasional rhyme enhances the story’s appeal as a read-aloud. As the story progresses, the colors of the sky shift from dawn to dusk, providing subtle, visual bookends for the narrative. One page of backmatter offers a quick guide to eight easily confused pairs, and a second turns a subsequent exploration of the book into a seek-and-find of 15 creatures (and one dessert) hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, while most of the creatures from the seek-and-find appear in poses that match the illustrations in the challenge, not all of them are consistently represented. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53.3% of actual size.)
Animated and educational. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-12506-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If Black Lives Matter, they deserve more specificity than this.
A lushly illustrated picture book with a troubling message.
Little Lala walks with her father after his successful day of fishing. When Mama calls her home for bed, a host of “good night”s delays her: to the bird, the monkey, and even the rock. As Lala wanders through her village in the darkening twilight, readers appreciate its expansive beauty and Lala’s simple joys. Although it’s been artfully written and richly illustrated by an award-winning author of many multicultural stories, this book has problems that overshadow its beauty. “African veld” sets the story in southern Africa, but its vague locale encourages Americans to think that distinctions among African countries don’t matter. Lala wears braids or locks that stick straight up, recalling the 19th-century pickaninny, and her inconsistent skin color ranges from deep ebony like her father’s to light brown. Shadows may cause some of these differences, but if it weren’t for her identifiable hair, readers might wonder if the same child wanders from page to page. Perhaps most striking of all is Lala’s bedtime story: not an African tale but an American classic. While this might evoke nostalgia in some readers, it also suggests that southern Africa has no comparably great bedtime books for Lala, perhaps in part because American children’s literature dominates the world market.
If Black Lives Matter, they deserve more specificity than this. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-17384-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
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