bookshelf

RAJA'S PET CAMEL

Name: RAJA'S PET CAMEL
Author: Anita Nahta Amin
ISBN: 978-1-73303-594-1

THE MAGIC OF HOPE

by Anita Nahta Amin ; illustrated by Parwinder Singh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2020

Both disorienting and disappointing.

bookshelf

After school one day, Raja befriends a baby camel that follows him home.

A wary Bapu agrees to allow the camel to stay until they can find the animal a permanent home. Delighted, Raja is hopeful that he can convince his father to allow Kamal to stay with them forever. Unfortunately, however, Kamal is “a wild camel with wild ways” and becomes so destructive and disruptive that Bapu insists on selling the camel at an upcoming fair. In a last-ditch effort to keep Kamal, Raja tries to train his new pet to participate in the annual camel race, thinking that if Kamal wins the large cash prize, Bapu will change his mind and allow the animal to stay. But at the fair and the race, Kamal misbehaves again, making it impossible for Bapu to sell her. The book’s ending is more of a cliffhanger than a real conclusion to its meandering plot, and readers are left guessing whether or not Raja will keep Kamal forever. The illustrations are equally confusing, pairing mostly turbaned, traditionally dressed adults with a bareheaded protagonist clad in button-down shirt and shorts. The only women depicted appear in the occasional background. The book ends with “10 Facts About the Thar Desert in India” that are both exoticizing and overgeneralized, consistently referring to “Indian” practice and tradition despite the geographically specific heading.

Both disorienting and disappointing. (Picture book. 3 -6)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-73303-594-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Cardinal Rule Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

bookshelf

CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

bookshelf

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

bookshelf

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

bookshelf

Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)