A picture book with a good premise but one whose execution needs to be reimagined.
First published in Italy in 2021, this picture book offers 24 short rhyming passages describing children’s hopes and dreams.
Solid sand-colored backgrounds allow the cheerful, colorful mixed-media paper collage illustrations to take center stage. At each vignette poem’s conclusion, the exclamatory refrain “imagine!” is emphasized in enlarged font and a contrasting color. Children and adults with different skin tones and anthropomorphized animals dramatize the central metaphors of the narrative. Perhaps because of the translation by Muir, some of the verses do not rhyme well: “Give up the guns, all the bombs banished / By a bilingual chorus / Imagine!” Although the book is narrated from the perspective of children, there is still a danger that it oversimplifies solutions to traumatic events and complex issues like mental illness, immigration crises, social divisions, and unemployment. What is most troubling is the inconsistent tone resulting from a haphazard mixing of serious topics with such light fare as wanting calamari for lunch. For example, sandwiched between a poem wishing away traffic noise and another about having pirates over for dinner is a lament about “adult wars” in the Middle East. The abrupt shifts in content may entertain some readers or may be jarring and confusing. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A picture book with a good premise but one whose execution needs to be reimagined. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63655-014-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Red Comet Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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