Read for the illustrations and the characters (but not the math).
Usha loves two things: trucks and cartwheels (although she’s still not quite sure how to do a cartwheel).
When her big sister, Aarti, points out the Big Dipper while stargazing, Usha doesn’t see a scoop at all; instead, she sees a truck. Usha confidently tells her sister that the constellation (or, more accurately, as Knight notes in the backmatter, the asterism) she’s seeing isn’t a big dipper—it’s a big digger. Things get even more complicated when the girls’ cousin Gloria comes over the next night. Gloria doesn’t see the constellation as a scoop or a truck; she sees it as a kite! Through all of this, Usha practices her cartwheels. Each of the girls is convinced that the others are seeing the stars in the wrong way, until Usha flops on the ground after a failed cartwheel and realizes that the constellation is, in fact, a scoop, a truck, and a kite, depending on its orientation. This latest edition to the Storytelling Math series features stunning illustrations of dark-skinned South Asian protagonists, with Gloria apparently biracial (Black/South Asian). The book bursts with charming images of endearing kids, and the story’s presentation of the girls’ varying, equally valid perspectives is a valuable tool for promoting empathy. However, its success at demonstrating the principle of orientation via a constellation is imperfect; any of the concrete examples in the backmatter would have worked better.
Read for the illustrations and the characters (but not the math). (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62354-202-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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