An atmosphere-rich tale with a strong sense of community for music lovers and cat enthusiasts alike.
In Stewart’s illustrated children’s story, a home full of cats is also full of adventure.
On Lavender Street, in the neighborhood of Gentilly in New Orleans, situated by the railroad and the canal is a shotgun-style house that stands out from the crowd. This isn’t only because of its eclectic blue and purple paint job; its residents include a girl named Eartha and an entire clowder of cats. (“The home was full of love, music, flowers, and kitties.”) Each cat has its own daily routine. Bill Bailey, who is black, white, and curious all over, loves to take walks and learn whatever he can. One day, he is dismayed by all of the humans who don’t understand his meows, so elder cats Toussaint and Pharaoh offer to teach him music, the universal language. Bill rushes back home to tell his feline housemates the plan and they all excitedly join in on the lesson, choosing instruments for themselves and learning to play them. Meanwhile, Eartha returns from work to an empty house and is concerned by her cats’ absence, so she sings the classic tune “Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey?” to draw them back. She and the cats are reunited as the felines march down the street as part of a second line parade bound to go down in the neighborhood’s history. This first entry in the Shotgun Shack Kitties series is Stewart’s debut and it is delightfully soaked in the culture of New Orleans, from the architecture to the music. Eartha’s quirky home and talented pets are an American Southern echo of Disney’s The Aristocats, likely to captivate young readers who love everyday animal stories. De Mahy’s illustrations portray Gentilly as vibrant, full of color, and diverse. She depicts Eartha with light brown skin and brown hair, and her neighbors with similar skin tones. One woman wears a hijab.
An atmosphere-rich tale with a strong sense of community for music lovers and cat enthusiasts alike.Pub Date: March 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781662950971
Page Count: 42
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Another playful imagination-stretcher.
Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.
As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.
Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339049052
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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