Empowers children to stop and consider others.
An empathetic Spanish import.
After a long winter, Cricket is excited to venture out and go for a walk in his neighborhood. He first comes across Ladybug, who is frantically looking for a newly washed spot that had been hanging up to dry and has disappeared from the line. Cricket proclaims: “I don’t wear any spots. I don’t think they’re that important,” and leaves without helping. Next, he sees Bee, who has gotten her wing tangled with fishing line. Cricket scoffs: “I hardly ever use my wings. I don’t think they’re that important,” and continues to walk. Spider is desperately trying to finish making silk before he opens his store for business. Cricket huffs: “I never buy balls of silk. I don’t think they’re that important.” Cricket, oblivious to the needs of others, is only concerned with himself. Each friend, in turn, helps another while Cricket strolls back home. But when Cricket’s strings break on his violin and Flea echoes Cricket’s own words: “I don’t play the violin. I don’t think it’s that important,” Cricket realizes his mistake. It would be easy to slide into a predictable, pedantic conclusion, but Isern instead chooses an earnest, heartwarming turn. Rigaudie’s close-up look at this pastel insect world makes lesson-learning all the more inviting. Tiny details delight: not just the insects’ many shoes, but puffs of steam emanating from cups of tea and Ladybug’s tiny clothespins. The Spanish-language original publishes simultaneously. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 50.8% of actual size.)
Empowers children to stop and consider others. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-84-17673-37-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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