A beautifully illustrated cat’s-eye view of a quiet bedtime on a farm.
A Swedish Goodnight Moon.
As shadows lengthen and day concludes, a dark-skinned child falls asleep while the narrator takes readers from the bedroom to the yard of this rural farmhouse, then to the woods, to a nearby lake, and finally to a nocturnal, moonlit sky view of the whole area. The rhythmic text features a rhyming refrain: “Everyone is going to sleep, now that night is near. / Even cats are going to sleep, as bedtime’s nearly here.” Most of that rings true, but the part about the cats will keep readers guessing since the black cat that first appears on the title page and then perched in the child’s windowsill roams all the places the narrator mentions—not sleeping at all. Along the cat’s path, readers see cows, horses, pigs, and sheep, then wild animals including a fox family, two moose, a snake, and sleeping badgers. Notably, many of the outdoor animals have stuffed-toy duplicates in the child’s bedroom, a hint that the cat’s journey could be real or imagined. Young readers who enjoy the soporific spell of Goodnight Moon will appreciate this invitation to sleep, translated from the Swedish. Törnqvist’s hazy, mostly earth-toned illustrations appropriately reflect the muted colors of dusk, and her detailed attention to the flora and fauna of the area will give readers plenty to find, name, count, and discuss. The biracial family (the mom has brown skin, and the dad presents White) makes this an inclusive story that counters prevailing stereotypes of rural farm families.
A beautifully illustrated cat’s-eye view of a quiet bedtime on a farm. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-78250-675-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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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
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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