A book with an engaging message that falls short during implementation.
When a child is given a box of crayons and an eraser, they replace bad things with nicer ones, spreading color everywhere.
“Desert” gives way to “roses” and the color red, “darkness” to “light” and the color yellow, and “hunger” to “wheat” and green. The color pairings go beyond a limited set to include sky blue, violet, silver, and others. Their associations with introduced items tickle the imagination but feel forced at times—why, for instance, is “laughter” purple? Readers looking for comfort in patterning will be disappointed by the inconsistency of types of actions in the text: Is the child effecting the change (“I made roses grow”) or just imagining it (“mothers danced and laughed”)? While the creative and simple poem focuses on improving the quality of the world for everybody, some readers may feel that certain concepts (“winter,” for instance, as well as“crying” and, most problematically, “old age”) are bestowed with a negativity they don’t deserve. Stylized, childlike illustrations accompany the introduced colors, with swirls and concentric circles offering unifying ornamentation, but largely fail to convey the positive message of the book, with most of the depicted characters looking unengaged, tired, or distressed. The book’s high point is an exercise for readers at the end, asking them to imagine what they want to change to make the world a better place.
A book with an engaging message that falls short during implementation. (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-910328-49-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiny Owl
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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