A graceful look at the power of harnessing the limitless possibilities of life.
A curious mind leads to many paths.
Sofía is an inquisitive child full of questions about the world. The teacher, though, thinks that Sofía isn’t attentive enough: “You must see so many birds with your head in the clouds!” An appealing image depicts several birds atop Sofía’s head. One day, instead of listening to the teacher’s lesson, Sofía decides to ask the questions that matter the most. The inquiries range from silly and childlike (“Does a cow’s baby know I drink its mom’s milk?”) to the accidentally profound (“Can I be good and happy at the same time?”). Yet Sofía’s teacher isn’t amused and responds, “When there are many paths, I always pick the same one.” So Sofía gives her a gift (“This little bird is for you. I see lots of them”) in the hopes that she’ll learn to think outside the box. Araya’s mixed-media art beautifully captures the controlled chaos of the mind of a child along with text, translated from Spanish, in a font that looks like scribblings. The spreads where Sofía asks a multitude of questions are infused with color—a drastic contrast to those featuring the teacher, rendered in dull grays and plain, neutral backgrounds that highlight the sometimes monotonous nature of adulthood. Characters have skin the color of the page.
A graceful look at the power of harnessing the limitless possibilities of life. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781953861900
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Elsewhere Editions
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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