Three fantastical tales with vivid images but uneven execution.
Debut author Fisher offers a trio of whimsical illustrated tales for children.
In “The Star Who Lost His Twinkle” the titular luminary has lost his shine and can’t get it back despite his friends’ and family’s best efforts. The star goes off by himself to find Polaris and a being called the Twinkle Man in hopes of regaining his twinkle. “The Butterfly Who Wanted To Hit a Home Run” features protagonist Wheatley Summerfield, freshly hatched from her cocoon, who’s struck with the burning desire to play baseball after witnessing a game. Other bugs protest that “BUTTERFLIES DO NOT PLAY BASEBALL!” Disheartened at first, Wheatley soon finds allies, and they plan to introduce baseball to the other insects. “The Tea Maker” follows a star named El who stumbles upon a fairy named Sprang and is invited to a tea party. At the party, El feels comfortable enough to disclose how alone she’s felt living with different foster stars. She’s invited to live with the fairies in the star-filled heavens and eventually meets a deity of sorts known as Tea Maker, among other names. This story’s spiritual message is different from the previous two, which focus more effectively on themes of inner strength. MacLean’s painterly, full-color illustrations are lovely, with a cheerful style and well-balanced color palettes that bring the text to life. However, the first and last tale prominently feature star imagery, while the story about insects employs a different illustration style that doesn’t mesh well. In addition, all the stories are text heavy; a stronger edit might have avoided the use of daunting paragraphs.
Three fantastical tales with vivid images but uneven execution.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2022
ISBN: 9781039112674
Page Count: 60
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it.
What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?
“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A storm-tossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—”This must be where I belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.
A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9780316669467
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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