Charming images enliven occasionally stilted text in a book that imparts a useful life lesson.
A mouse and frog learn that cooperating is more fun than arguing over who’s best in Smit’s illustrated children’s book.
This lively narrative opens with a dialogue between Mouse and Frog, with each describing the qualities that make one better than the other, while also imparting some fun facts about each animal. Frog notes, for example, that he can “see all around in the darkness of night” while Mouse says that she can hear “the softest of sounds.” Soon, Mouse decides that “learning from others can help us to grow,” and the pair quickly become friends. They realize that each can use their skills to help the other, and that the reader should “love who you are cause there’s only one you!” The format of Smit’s book changes partway through, which may cause young readers to stumble a bit; for the first half, Mouse and Frog take turns talking, and then halfway through, a third-person narrator comes into play. Still, the story’s simple lesson of cooperation and self-acceptance is a worthy one. The brevity and simplicity of the text will encourage new readers. However, the rhymes occasionally feel a bit forced: “It’s a fun froggy trick, / a great trick you should note: / I can use both my eyes / to push food down my throat!” The book’s greatest strength is Caron’s watercolor art, which has a cheerful lightness and brightness that imbues Mouse and Frog with lively character. Audiences young and old will enjoy lingering over the images’ details, and because each illustration is surrounded by plenty of white space, the eye is immediately drawn to the pictures first and text second. Although the animals are anthropomorphized—for example, both sport rosy cheeks—they’re otherwise delightfully realistic in their portrayals.
Charming images enliven occasionally stilted text in a book that imparts a useful life lesson.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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