A thoroughly delicious (and practically wordless) charmer.
Step aside, Sal. There’s a new blueberry lover in town.
A hopeful bear cub sidles up to the grown-up of the house to ask, “Blueberry cake?” A red bucket is produced with the one-word instruction “Blueberries,” and off the cub skips to collect the delicious fruit. At first all goes well. A massive field filled with blueberry bushes extends as far as the eye can see. But little bears have little attention spans, and next thing you know the cub has come home, not with a bucket full of blueberries but with a bucket full of flowers. “No blueberries,” the cub admits. “No blueberry cake” is the straightforward reply. Can the little bear make amends the next day? Yes! The cake is baked and devoured, and then the little bear utters a single word: “Applesauce?” Tapping into the enthusiasm of small children and infused with a laconic humor, this book is bound to prove a rollicking read-aloud for all that it has a minimal text that mostly consists of repetition of the critical words: blueberry cake and blueberries. Ripe and ripening blueberries abound on the page, meticulously rendered in exquisite detail. Such details extend to other elements of the bucolic setting, such as the black-eyed Susans, Queen Anne’s lace, and even a passing monarch butterfly. A note from the author and a recipe for blueberry cake round out this deeply satisfying story. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A thoroughly delicious (and practically wordless) charmer. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5134-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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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