Still, even on a very crowded metafictive shelf, this effort is good fun.
“I am the author, and that means I get to write all of the words. I am also the illustrator, so I get to make all of the pictures, too,” lectures a sadly deluded, bespectacled white man.
As soon as he draws Percy the Perfectly Polite Panda, his control crumbles. “I prefer to be called Spike,” informs the panda, who goes on to wreak havoc. Pett poses his characters on blank, white space, the author/illustrator looking out at readers and Spike mostly turned back to as he uses crayons to “add some color to these boring white pages.” Spike draws some new characters, and together they begin some serious engineering. They build in a flap. “I don’t want any flaps in my book!” complains the author/illustrator. Then they make a pull-tab, which, hilariously, animates the author/illustrator jumping up and down as he screams, “I DON’T WANT PULL TABS!” An unwanted pop-up is even funnier. Finally the author/illustrator listens when Spike explains that “it’s not just your book. It’s ours too,” and, crucially, “it’s their book, too,” gesturing out at readers. Spike’s invitation to readers to “help us” is clearly limited to the minibook included at the end, however, never really getting to the creative synergy among creator, book, and readers that is at the heart of reading.
Still, even on a very crowded metafictive shelf, this effort is good fun. (Novelty picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93790-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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
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