It’s a sweet, fantastic depiction of community building, but it’s just too bad that it doesn’t acknowledge its debt to old,...
A fantastically giant turtle is lonely until others make themselves at home on his shell.
Seeming a bit like a riff on creation stories (though failing to acknowledge any Native American or other sources), Sherry’s story relies on readers’ willingness to suspend disbelief. Echoing the bravado of the protagonist of his debut, I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (2008), it opens, “I’m a giant turtle, and I’m as BIG as an island.” Cheery, accompanying art, rendered in pencil and then inked and painted with watercolors and salts, depicts the giant turtle looming over a deserted island. The poor turtle is lonely until shipwrecked creatures take refuge on his shell. They end up feasting together and building homes; all is well on Turtle Island. But then the settlers become lonely for their friends and family, and they decide to depart to find them. Bereft and once again alone, the giant turtle cannot stop thinking about his new friends. Happily, they soon return with their loved ones and re-establish the Turtle Island settlement—which grows as another giant turtle arrives with a castle atop her shell and three other littler giant turtles nearby.
It’s a sweet, fantastic depiction of community building, but it’s just too bad that it doesn’t acknowledge its debt to old, old stories about the Turtle Island that is North America. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3391-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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