A recipe for success.
An uplifting ode to food’s tastes, functions, and varieties.
A child’s tummy rumbles one morning: “That’s your body saying, ‘Feed me!’” Subsequent spreads feature children engaged in various activities while snacking. A juice box gives a child energy to ride a scooter. Chips fuel doodling. A plate of cookies sits beside a youngster who gazes through a microscope. “All food has a purpose,” whether giving us “energy to wake up” or “strength to do hard things.” Best of all, food is yummy and will “make your taste buds sing.” Ehlert digs even deeper into food’s effects on the body as she briefly explains the functions of fats, carbs, proteins, and sugar. Short snippets about where food comes from and depictions of various mealtimes close out this smorgasbord of informational foodie fun. In addition to being a delightful contrast to the cadre of books that yuck someone else’s yum, this affirming title resists diet culture. A section of FAQs for grown-ups explains the concept of intuitive eating (listening to our body’s signals and eating the foods we’re craving) and the importance of food neutrality (not ascribing moral judgments such as unhealthy to food). The sheer variety of foods included in the colorful, cheerful illustrations is like a delicious sampler platter. A child with a cochlear implant, wheelchair users, and a youngster with a prosthetic arm round out the diverse cast.
A recipe for success. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781250854452
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
A poem about the pandemic with vivid illustrations and a strong environmental message.
During a period of quarantine, people discover new ways to live—and new lessons about how to care for the planet—in this debut picture book.
In this work’s poem, O’Meara describes lockdowns experienced by many across the world during the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Beginning with the title phrase, the author discusses quiet activities of solitude and togetherness as well as more boisterous ways of interacting. These times of being apart give people a new perspective, and when they reunite, “they grieved their losses, / and made new choices” to restore the planet. The spare verse allows the illustrations by Di Cristofaro and Pereda to take center stage. The colorful, slightly abstract cartoons depict a rainbow of people and pets, many of them living in apartments but some residing in larger, greener spaces. Images of nature healing show the author’s vision of hope for the future. While this was written in March and originally published as an online poem, the lack of an explicit mention of the reason behind the lockdowns (and the omission of the experiences of essential workers) could offer readers an opportunity to imagine a planetary healing beyond the pandemic that inspired the piece. The accessible prose and beautiful images make this a natural selection for young readers, but older ones may appreciate the work’s deeper meaning.
A poem about the pandemic with vivid illustrations and a strong environmental message.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73476-178-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tra Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
