Transcendent and brimming with the promise of life’s renewal.
Small becomes spectacular.
From the beginning of this exquisite book, text and art meld to demonstrate that all life starts out insignificant, then remarkably explodes into breathtaking magnificence. “Everyone starts small / and then grows. / Sun grows beams / And Grass grows blades / and Cloud cannot contain herself. / Then things really get going. / Everyone sprouts and bursts / and hatches and spreads. / Especially Tree.” The book centers on the tree’s “pretty incredible” interconnectedness with other life forces, such as Water, Grass, Sun, Bug, and Berry. They “rise and ripen, too.” Occasionally intruding upon this idyllic landscape comes powerful Wind, which can do damage to Tree, as can the searing heat of Sun. Then, joining ruinous forces, Wind and Sun wreak violent havoc on Tree and other life forms. After Fire erupts, “there’s not a thing in the world / anyone can say to that.” When Rain eventually saves the day, Tree is thankful, and Fire concedes that it’s tired. Once Fire’s extinguished, “Half the world…lies down to sleep… / But Soil holds on… / and everyone stays like that for a long while.” Miraculously, following the devastation, the Earth renews itself, and new lives arise again, rife with fabulous potential. The text is simple and simply lovely, expressing in a clear, comprehensible way how intertwined everything in nature is. The beautiful, eye-popping digital illustrations are lushly textured.
Transcendent and brimming with the promise of life’s renewal. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781536226157
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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