An enchanting love letter to the magic of childhood and the fertile relationship between good literature and young readers’...
Sís takes readers on a journey to a Slumberland-esque island that reinforces the joys of storytelling and would make Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo proud.
In this gorgeously illustrated picture book, the author pays homage to his literary forbears and allows readers to experience the seductive imaginative power that enables readers to disappear into and embody the stories they love. The protagonist—based on Sís himself—and his friends (a multiethnic group) love nothing more than playing at being pirates. When their school hosts a costume contest, the white boy’s mother convinces him to dress as Robinson Crusoe, his favorite hero, instead of a pirate. Like Michael Ende’s Bastian Balthazar Bux, the boy is teased for daring to be different and escapes into his imagination to find courage and adventure. As the sepia tones of the real world give way to the luxuriant, water-colored dreamscape, readers will lose themselves in the lush greens of the trees used to build the protagonist’s forest home and long to swim in the deep blue water swirling around the island paradise (populated only by friendly animals—no Man Friday here). Experimentation in different artistic styles further enhances the creativity and otherworldly quality of Sís’ landscape. The author’s note at the end also proves delightful.
An enchanting love letter to the magic of childhood and the fertile relationship between good literature and young readers’ imaginations. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-73166-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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