An earnest, well-illustrated work about troubled children and caring adults.
A picture book with compassionate words of encouragement for those who feel alone and lost.
Mehlman-Orozco and Lowery-Keith’s book introduces readers to three categories of children: Orchids, who are highly sensitive and only flourish in a specific environment; Tulips, who require only a basic level of attention; and Dandelions, who grow with no one to care for them. This book focuses on Dandelion children’s experiences and explores difficulties they must overcome to thrive. Readers are reminded that children in every society experience harassment, homelessness, and neglect; some go to bed and school hungry and aren’t taught to read, and when they’re sick, no one cares for them. Fortunately, the Dandelion children in the book are encouraged by someone who tells them they’re resilient, courageous, and strong. Overall, this is a valuable, if often sad, work; however, it ends on an upbeat note that Dandelions can indeed flourish. Rodic’s scruffy, full-color illustrations are a wonderful match for the text, showing the beauty in things that may outwardly seem broken, worn, and patched. The book’s beginning is slightly confusing, as the narrator introduces themselves and “Dr. Kim” with an image that features five characters. However, the book later makes clear that the narrator is a grown-up Dandelion child who can empathize and understand such children’s struggles.
An earnest, well-illustrated work about troubled children and caring adults.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73775-031-4
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Break The Chain Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.
A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.
Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)
Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72822-355-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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