An artful ode to reframing one’s fears and getting comfortable with the dark.
A bit of poetic thinking transforms the dark of nighttime.
A young, curly-haired child, with skin the color of the page, accompanied by a blue bird perched on their head, describes the dark apprehensively: “Sometimes, if I’m careless / it sneaks, soundless / through my old door lock.” This little person is vigilant and a bit anxious as night comes on: “The sun no longer warms me, / because it left without a trace.” Translated from Spanish, this poetic text, with its spare, slightly odd syntax, is set against full-page blue, gray, and black swaths of color; the art is equally simple but arresting, with the child, often outlined in white, popping against the black backdrop. As the enclosing dark starts to seem unbearable, the child huddled under blankets, a black raven appears at the window, boldly, directly contradicting the fear: “It’s not scary, ink, or a coat! The night is like pajamas!” The raven is an emphatic, all-black figure, shadowed against a blue, starry background overlaid with a whimsical pattern for sewing…pajamas! Now the child, stretching to attend to this new idea, transforms into the blue bird, emerging from a stripy pajama top, bursting into flight to announce this discovery to the city, the forest, and the ocean. The message is reassuring and, for the now cozily pajama-clad child, sleep-inducing. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An artful ode to reframing one’s fears and getting comfortable with the dark. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781478885306
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Reycraft Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.”
The cover’s glowing golden stars are but a small hint of the parent-child love inside.
In this companion book to the creators’ I Love You, My Little Unicorn (2022), a world full of digitally created dinosaurs illustrated in eye-catching colors dominates the pages. From the start, it’s clear that dinosaur parents have the same hopes and dreams for their offspring that human parents do. Readers don’t have to be dinosaur fans to smile when the parent-and-child dinosaur pairs playfully interact and share loving glances. Take special note of the ankylosauruses, whose tails arc to form a heart beneath a sky filled with heart-shaped clouds. The text in verse shares words of unconditional parental love and support and wisdom (“please remember all these things / that I want you to know”), appropriate for humans and dinos alike. “Roar with all your might!” “Spread your wings and fly.” “Use your voice, and ask for help.” There’s even a caveat that some “days will be dark / and other shades of gray.” But “there’s always brightness up ahead.” While the loving sentiments in the storytelling are clear, words are sometimes inverted to make the rhyme work, and the verse doesn’t always follow a consistent meter, but prereading will let the story shine during quiet snuggle times.
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728268361
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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