Overall, this misses the mark and won’t wing its way to success.
A rhymed text explores the imaginary places where a book can transport a reader.
“It has pages and pictures, / a cover, it’s true, / even words and a writer— / and readers like you. / It can do anything / that you want it to do. / But this is not a book. // Because books do not have wings.” All kinds of magical things can be found in the pages of this not-a-book. Readers whirl up a complicated agglomeration of gears into the clouds to clockwork cities and a pirate ship, as the text continues his protestations that it is not a book. Text notwithstanding, it’s the artwork that evokes the imagination and captures the eye as two children, one dark-skinned with short, black, curly hair and the other fair-skinned with long, blond hair, experience various adventures. The illustrations blend the quirkiness of Henrik Drescher with the detailing of Graeme Base in vivid colors and intriguing images. The rhymes tend to get in the way of the images they are describing, however. “This, here, is a submarine, / a never-look-back, pretend-it machine, / to explore the depths / of the vast marine / with urchins, seaweed, / and schools of sardines. / Come closer, dear reader, / and see the unseen— / this thing that’s not a book.” The repetition of the title phrase feels both precious and monotonous, muddying the conceit—which stands a very good chance of actually confusing readers.
Overall, this misses the mark and won’t wing its way to success. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58536-964-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.
The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
A serene, feel-good outing with a cozy, old-fashioned feel.
In this Japanese import, the first in a long-running series to appear in English, two girls ride bikes through a forest—with stops for clover-blossom tea and jam sandwiches.
It’s such a benign wood that Chirri and Chirra—depicted as a prim pair of identical twins with straight bob cuts—think nothing of sharing both a lunch spot and a nap beneath a tree with a bear and a rabbit. Moreover, at convenient spots along the way there is a forest cafe with a fox waiter plus “tables and chairs of all different size” to accommodate the diverse forest clientele, a bakery offering “bread in all different shapes and jam in all different colors,” and, just as the sun goes down, a forest hotel with similarly diverse keys and doors. That night a forest concert draws the girls and the hotel’s animal guests to their balconies to join in: “La-la-la, La-la-la. What a wonderful night in the forest!” Despite heavy doses of cute, the episode is saved from utter sappiness by the inclusive spirit of the forest stops and the delightfully unforced way that the girls offer greetings to a pair of honeybees at a tiny adjacent table in the cafe, show no anxiety at the spider dangling above their napping place, and generally accept their harmonious sylvan world as a safe and friendly place. Doi creates her illustrations with colored pencil, pastel, and crayon, crafting them to look like mid-20th-century lithographs.
A serene, feel-good outing with a cozy, old-fashioned feel. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59270-199-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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