A warm, heartfelt paean to a leafy refuge for beautiful birds and happy children.
In Pearl’s picture book, a beloved tree and a centuries-old castle share a storied pastoral history.
A majestic tree stands in a field miles away from the bustling city of London, England. Local children climb its branches, sit high among its leaves, and rest beneath its shaded canopy. As darkness approaches, colorful peahens and peacocks perch upon its limbs for shelter while the children and their families fall sleep in their homes. It is during this quiet time that the tree shares memories of times past with the castle (Woodcroft Castle, a real-life edifice that dates back to the 13th century) upon whose grounds it was planted. They recount how the castle came to be and reminisce about simpler times. (“Together, they remember when there were no trains or cars or planes. When there was only sun and night and wrong and right.”) As day breaks, the children rush to feed the peacocks and peahens and return to their favorite tree. Pearl’s soft pastel illustrations, which have a grainy texture, suit the story’s pastoral setting, and pages incorporating black-and-white shadow play effectively represent the historic battles waged at Woodcroft Castle. The text is written in brief poetic stanzas. Alluding to Woodcroft’s fractious history, the author sets the stage for the message she hopes to impart to her readers: Care should be taken with humans, animals, trees…and all living things.
A warm, heartfelt paean to a leafy refuge for beautiful birds and happy children.Pub Date: June 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781838757663
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Nightingale Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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
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