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EVERY LITTLE KINDNESS

Name: EVERY LITTLE KINDNESS
Author: Marta Bartolj
ISBN: 978-1-79720-792-6

by Marta Bartolj ; illustrated by Marta Bartolj ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 2021

A lesson by example in compassion for all ages.

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In Bartolj’s wordless debut, first published in Slovenia, small acts of kindness have big effects.

Soft watercolor illustrations in a graphic-novel layout open on and follow a distraught-looking individual as they leave home to put up posters for their missing dog. As the walker pauses to offer an apple to a busker in the park, the spotlight shifts to an onlooker, who stops to pick up litter on their walk—which inspires a child to buy a balloon for a friend, and so on. The primary-color palette keeps the impressionistic backgrounds (most of which feature their “lost dog” poster) of an idyllic, European-style city—complete with charming cafes and cobblestoned pedestrian streets—in gentle, blue-gray washes on yellow paper, with the details of each act of kindness highlighted in bright red. The return of dropped items, the holding of doors, the sharing of umbrellas, seats, and playtime all circle back to a person finally coming across the lost dog and its resulting happy reunion with its owner. The sweetness of the story is palpable without being cloying, and the message of care comes through without needing to be said. Most humans depicted present White; the finder of the dog is a person of color, two women wear headscarves, and one character uses a wheelchair.

A lesson by example in compassion for all ages. (Picture book. 3-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-79720-792-6

Page Count: 72

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)