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MR. COATS

Name: MR. COATS
Author: Sieb Posthuma
ISBN: 978-1-64614-184-5

by Sieb Posthuma ; illustrated by Sieb Posthuma ; translated by David Colmer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 23, 2022

Delightfully odd and steadfast in the warming power of love.

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In this quirky Dutch import, a man searches for a way to get warm.

Mr. Coats is endlessly cold. He lives in a house with many stoves and surrounds himself with piles and piles of electric blankets. He has hot water bottles and heat lamps, to no avail. His house is so scorching that no one ever visits. But Mr. Coats still shivers. So he goes to the shops for more supplies. When he returns home, he has so many coats layered one on top of the other that he can no longer fit through his front door! His coats form a comically large bell shape, each color peeking out from underneath the next, with just enough room for his head at the top. So Mr. Coats does the only thing he can do—he turns his coats into his new home. A warming fire puffs out smoke from the sleeves. But can he live that way forever? Luckily there just might be a special friend who is able to warm his heart. The cheery patterns of the various coats and the fancifully shaped hats that most townsfolk wear add levity to Mr. Coats’ plight. Mr. Coats and others all have paper-white skin, which takes on the color of the background at times. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Delightfully odd and steadfast in the warming power of love. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-64614-184-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Levine Querido

Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT OLLIE SAW
by Joukje Akveld ; illustrated by Sieb Posthuma ; translated by Bill Nagelkerke

- BOOK REVIEW
WHERE IS RUSTY?
by Sieb Posthuma ; illustrated by Sieb Posthuma ; translated by Bill Nagelkerke

- BOOK REVIEW
A POND FULL OF INK
by Annie M.G. Schmidt ; illustrated by Sieb Posthuma ; translated by David Colmer

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WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES, MR. BROWN?

by Justin Rhodes ; illustrated by Heather Dickinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2023

Pedestrian.

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Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.

Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 14, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals

Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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TOYS GALORE

by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children...

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A fizzy yet revealing romp through the toy world.

Though of standard picture-book size, Stein and illustrator Staake’s latest collaboration (Bugs Galore, 2012, etc.) presents a sweeping compendium of diversions for the young. From fairies and gnomes, race cars and jacks, tin cans and socks, to pots ’n’ pans and a cardboard box, Stein combs the toy kingdom for equally thrilling sources of fun. These light, tightly rhymed quatrains focus nicely on the functions characterizing various objects, such as “Floaty, bubbly, / while-you-wash toys” or “Sharing-secrets- / with-tin-cans toys,” rather than flatly stating their names. Such ambiguity at once offers Staake free artistic rein to depict copious items capable of performing those tasks and provides pre-readers ample freedom to draw from the experiences of their own toy chests as they scan Staake’s vibrant spreads brimming with chunky, digitally rendered objects and children at play. The sense of community and sharing suggested by most of the spreads contributes well to Stein’s ultimate theme, which he frames by asking: “But which toy is / the best toy ever? / The one most fun? / Most cool and clever?” Faced with three concluding pages filled with all sorts of indoor and outside toys to choose from, youngsters may be shocked to learn, on turning to the final spread, that the greatest one of all—“a toy SENSATION!”—proves to be “[y]our very own / imagination.”

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)