A curious premise with captivating illustrations that unfortunately lacks excitement.
Learning the order of the Korean zodiac signs becomes a bedtime story to help a little girl learn how to tell time.
Yu-Rhee, a young Korean girl, looks at the puzzling, round clock face, wondering how her mother knows it is time for bed. Mother tells her a story about a special group of animals and a compassionate mountain who plays an active role. The animals represent the 12 symbols of the zodiac. As the tale begins, an unnamed child struggles up a steep trail in search of the doraji plant to make a healing tea for their ill mother. Mountain takes pity on the child and asks the animals to help her. One by one, the animals give time-related excuses instead of providing assistance. “When the sun climbs the morning sky, I need to bask in its bright rays,” says Snake. Finally the animals do help, and the child achieves their goal. Each illustration is built from cut-out drawings and pieces of tissue paper that have been placed into dioramas for a striking, three-dimensional effect. Natural shadows and the lines that support each element provide texture and perspective. The link between each animal and their associated time is tenuous, however, needing stronger visual cues to help young readers learn timekeeping. Unfortunately, as the journey plays out, the child is not as active a character as the animals, and the pacing plods up and down the mountain.
A curious premise with captivating illustrations that unfortunately lacks excitement. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2127-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end.
Something is preventing Owl from falling asleep.
Owl leans back against his white pillow and headboard. “Squeek!” says something underneath the bed. Owl’s never heard that sound before, so he fastens his pink bathrobe and answers the front door. Nobody. It must be the wind; back to bed. Bidding himself goodnight, he climbs into bed—and hears the noise again. Time after time, he pops out of bed seeking the squeaker. Is it in the cupboard? He empties the shelves. Under the floor? He pulls up his floorboards. As Owl’s actions ratchet up—he destroys the roof and smashes the walls, all in search of the squeak—so does his anxiety. Not until he hunkers down in bed under the night sky (his bed is now outdoors, because the house’s roof and walls are gone), frantically clutching his pillow, does he see what readers have seen all along: a small, gray mouse. In simple illustrations with black outlines, textured coloring, and foreshortened perspective, Pizzoli plays mischievously with mouse placement. Sometimes the mouse is behind Owl or just out of his sightline; other times, the mouse is on a solid, orange-colored page across the spread from Owl, which removes him from Owl’s scene in a rather postmodern manner. Is the mouse toying with Owl? Who knows?
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1275-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Animated and educational.
A hare and a ground squirrel banter about the differences between related animals that are often confused for one another.
Jack is “no Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail,” but a “H-A-R-E, hare!” Like sheep and goats, or turtles and tortoises, rabbits and hares may look similar, but hares are bigger, their fur changes color in the winter, and they are born with their eyes wide open. As the ground squirrel (not to be mistaken for a chipmunk (even though Jack cheekily calls it “Chippie”) and Jack engage in playful discussion about animals, a sneaky coyote prowls after them through the Sonoran Desert. This picture book conveys the full narrative in spirited, speech-bubbled dialogue set on expressive illustrations of talking animals. Dark outlines around the characters make their shapes pop against the softly blended colors of the desert backgrounds. Snappy back-and-forth paired with repetition and occasional rhyme enhances the story’s appeal as a read-aloud. As the story progresses, the colors of the sky shift from dawn to dusk, providing subtle, visual bookends for the narrative. One page of backmatter offers a quick guide to eight easily confused pairs, and a second turns a subsequent exploration of the book into a seek-and-find of 15 creatures (and one dessert) hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, while most of the creatures from the seek-and-find appear in poses that match the illustrations in the challenge, not all of them are consistently represented. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53.3% of actual size.)
Animated and educational. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-12506-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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