Like its protagonist, this book tries hard to be endearing.
A perplexed bull ponders the secret of being cute.
Human Tom and bull Alfred have grown up together on a farm, forming a tight friendship. When Tom starts school, Alfred is bored. Then, betrayal: Tom announces he needs a pet that is “absolutely, totally… / …adorable!” Alfred, with his shaggy brown fur and boulder of a body, immediately takes offense. He looks up “adorable” on the farmer’s borrowed phone and finds pictures of fluffy animals in aww-inspiring escapades. Alfred tries to imitate them, with destructive success. Sill stumped, Alfred takes a trip to the hair salon (where readers can see some racial diversity beyond Tom’s white family) for “a new look” that involves lots of curls and bows, but he receives laughter for his troubles. Then Tom offers the discouraged bull a gift: a white kitten! It turns out that Tom’s intention was to give Alfred a friend so he wouldn’t be lonely. As a pair, the animals are “adorable.” The unaffected text never overwhelms the pictures and could offer a transition into independent reading with mostly easily decoded vocabulary. Intentionally juvenile-looking pictures are as rough as Alfred’s temper and as unrefined as his perception of the situation. The characters’ small hands and hooves as well as simplified facial features (small black dots and lines) make them all nonthreatening, matching the book’s sentiment.
Like its protagonist, this book tries hard to be endearing. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-84886-412-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Maverick Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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
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
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