Small children who love to wear pink and plié around the house will find this an agreeable read.
A little balletomane performs a duet with her bear.
The ballet-loving little girl who danced her way through the school day in her debut, Ruby Rose: Off to School She Goes (2016), returns for more of the same. Sitting at the breakfast table with her cooking dad, baby brother, dog, and beloved bear, she announces that there will be a dance recital. Donning her pink butterfly costume, Ruby Rose begins her preparations. A rainstorm is barely a deterrent to her poster-making, ticket distribution, costume and stage design, and warm-ups. (Ruby’s first ticket-delivery system is floating helium balloons; when they pop in the tree outside her bedroom, she diligently cleans up the remains.) Unfortunately, the storm threatens to keep the audience from attending, but soon the seats in the living room are filled, and Ruby and the bear, named Bearishnikov, dance a duet to loud cheers. Ruby and her family are white, and the small audience has a few persons of color. The digital illustrations range from full-page to spot art, with features depicted through dots for eyes and simple lines for mouths and noses. Grandparents sharing this title will know for whom the bear is named—Mikhail Baryshnikov—but this detail will likely soar over the target audience’s heads.
Small children who love to wear pink and plié around the house will find this an agreeable read. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-223571-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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