A lovely addition to any bedtime repertoire.
A young girl’s fear of the dark is quieted when she explores the night with her mother in Feder (Daisy’s Big Night, 2014) and Sicuro’s (Bright Sky, Starry City, 2015) first collaboration.
Every evening, Ella dreads the arrival of the dark. As the sun begins to set, she goes through her house with her mother, turning on lights to replace the sun’s yellow glow and keep the dark at bay. When Ella laments the sun’s departure and the disappearance of yellow, her favorite color, from her world, her mother coaxes her outside into the twilight and encourages her to take a look around. Ella sees the moon first, and once she really starts to look, it’s not long before she realizes that yellow hasn’t disappeared after all. Blinking fireflies and the moon itself fill the night with Ella’s favorite color, and she finds that the quietness of night is special, too. When she returns inside, Ella still turns on a few lights, but she welcomes the moon as a nighttime companion until the sun returns. Transitioning from spreads awash in warm daylight to lush and vibrant night scenes, Sicuro’s watercolors lend a quiet, emotional depth to Feder’s unhurried narrative. Ella’s race and ethnicity are not explored in either text or images, which depict her and her mother with paper-white skin and dark hair, but her discovery will appeal to any readers who have ever found themselves embracing a new part of their world.
A lovely addition to any bedtime repertoire. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55498-823-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance.
A boy with wings learns to be himself and inspires others like him to soar, too.
Norman, a “perfectly normal” boy, never dreamed he might grow wings. Afraid of what his parents might say, he hides his new wings under a big, stuffy coat. Although the coat hides his wings from the world, Norman no longer finds joy in bathtime, playing at the park, swimming, or birthday parties. With the gentle encouragement of his parents, who see his sadness, Norman finds the courage to come out of hiding and soar. Percival (The Magic Looking Glass, 2017, etc.) depicts Norman with light skin and dark hair. Black-and-white illustrations show his father with dark skin and hair and his mother as white. The contrast of black-and-white illustrations with splashes of bright color complements the story’s theme. While Norman tries to be “normal,” the world and people around him look black and gray, but his coat stands out in yellow. Birds pop from the page in pink, green, and blue, emphasizing the joy and beauty of flying free. The final spread, full of bright color and multiracial children in flight, sets the mood for Norman’s realization on the last page that there is “no such thing as perfectly normal,” but he can be “perfectly Norman.”
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-785-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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