A literally buoyant reminder that sometimes it takes a village.
A boy can build a boat by himself, but launching it is another matter.
Small in body but large in determination, solitary Sal starts his newest project by ransacking his mom’s garage and then proceeding to gather old boards, discarded paint, and seemingly random junk from all over his small seaside town. What he constructs has walls, windows, and a peaked roof. But Sal shrugs off the skeptical comments of passersby (“What, have they never seen a boat before? Zero imagination in this town”). When it’s done, it is indeed a (house)boat and, in the luminous illustrations, a magnificent one, solidly assembled from bric-a-brac and splashed with intense colors. Triumph gives way to frustration, though, as an onlooker’s question about how he’s going to drag it down to the shoreline leads to a series of devastating failures. Along with effectively capturing the setting’s small-town feel in her watercolors, Heder depicts a light-skinned protagonist whose changing facial expressions and body language offer a positive study as he goes from intense, scowling concentration to delight, dismay, then despair, resignation, and, bit by bit, anger. But just as he’s about to smash his boat to splinters, up come all the townsfolk with flags, balloons, and a construction hoist to pitch in and see the great launch done right. A final view of the floating house out on the water at sunset, strung with party lights and surrounded by boatloads of diversely hued neighbors, ends the episode on a properly celebratory note. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A literally buoyant reminder that sometimes it takes a village. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5750-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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