An uplifting, well-illustrated adventure full of whimsy and joy.
Ellis’ charming debut picture book, written in rhyming couplets, tells a story of how fireflies discover their light.
It all begins on a stormy night, during which the first fireflies discover their inner glow after being struck by lightning. As the cloudburst dissipates, their lights begin to fade, but Firefly Fran still shines bright and is delighted at how she “sparkle[s] with pizazz.” She tries to raise her fellow fireflies’ spirits with positivity and uplifting words, but they refuse to listen, which makes her sad. When Fran is captured by human children, her wing tears and she can’t fly. In her jar, Fran meets a spider in despair because her web has been destroyed. Working together, the spider and the firefly help fix each other’s problems. Fran flies to what she thinks is “Thunder Thicket,” but is actually Watts Way, and witnesses an amazing spectacle of light as other fireflies find their inner lights again. They learn that lightning doesn’t give them their light: “It’s JOY that makes us glow!” Over the course of this illustrated book, Ellis presents a delightful tale that will entertain young readers. The rhyming pattern’s predictability will assist lap readers, and the colorful descriptive language will provide new terms (“while lolling in the dusky dark”; “a shimmer over soft green grass”). Talbott’s illustrations are consistently engaging, full of light, and filled with fantasy as they follow Fran on her adventures. The human characters are portrayed with a range of skin tones; the fireflies have big eyes and expressive, cartoonish features. The artist also effectively makes the lightning shine and fireflies sparkle.
An uplifting, well-illustrated adventure full of whimsy and joy.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781684018086
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Mascot Kids
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
