A sympathetic, engaging, and understanding look at autism.
A boy finds a way to explain autism to his classmates in this show-and-tell picture book based on a true story.
Ian is excited about a new school year, but his classmates have trouble understanding why he does things differently. Ian ends up mostly playing by himself. When the teacher announces a show-and-tell project, he isn’t sure what to do. He wishes his classmates could understand him as well as his favorite stuffed animal does. That gives him an idea: “I’ll tell them about autism and show them how I think differently. Then they’ll understand.” With his mom’s help, Ian puts together objects to help him explain autism to his class, like a hula hoop to show how he sometimes forgets personal space. Later, a classmate reminds him of the hula hoop, and he understands he’s too close—they now speak the same language. Montgomery uses a clear font and simple sentences to pack a lot of information into the captivating tale. The voice feels authentic to Ian’s experiences, and the empathetic story is based on a presentation the author’s own son did for his third grade class. Bolognese-Warrington skillfully uses color, showing Ian’s world primarily in grayscale until the White boy begins his presentation. Each of Ian’s objects brings a splash of color to the page. At the end of his talk, the whole classroom is depicted in bright hues. The correlation of being understood with seeing in full color is an effective technique.
A sympathetic, engaging, and understanding look at autism.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 978-1667891293
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Ruby Dolphin Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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