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SOUP FOR BREAKFAST

This wacky, wild and sometimes witty collection of verse and illustrations will not disappoint Brown’s many fans. There’s plenty of wordplay here, and even some tongue twisters (“Stealthy thieves / in thick wool caps / collect antiques / in thick cloth sacks”). Fourteen brief poems share similar cadences and employ mainly rhymed couplets and some near rhymes (“The mark of our intelligence / is how we treat the elephants”). The acrylic paintings that accompany the poems are done in appropriately vegetal, soupy hues and feature the illustrator’s characteristic childlike perspective and sense of fancy. A tattletale “Egret” spills the speaker’s secret to a tree full of other birds, beaks all flapping to pass the gossip along. Beyond whimsy, there is no apparent thematic unity to the collection, but Brown’s playfulness with language provides food for thought as well as “soup for breakfast,” and may inspire readers to attempt their own terse verse. (Poetry. 4-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-618-91641-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008

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ALL THE COLORS OF THE EARTH

This heavily earnest celebration of multi-ethnicity combines full-bleed paintings of smiling children, viewed through a golden haze dancing, playing, planting seedlings, and the like, with a hyperbolic, disconnected text—``Dark as leopard spots, light as sand,/Children buzz with laughter that kisses our land...''— printed in wavy lines. Literal-minded readers may have trouble with the author's premise, that ``Children come in all the colors of the earth and sky and sea'' (green? blue?), and most of the children here, though of diverse and mixed racial ancestry, wear shorts and T-shirts and seem to be about the same age. Hamanaka has chosen a worthy theme, but she develops it without the humor or imagination that animates her Screen of Frogs (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-688-11131-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994

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SUMMER VACATION, HERE I COME!

From the Here I Come! series

Summertime fun.

Summer vacation is the stuff children’s dreams are made of.

This collection of verse begins with that first day a child can sleep in instead of being woken up for school by the alarm clock (“BEEP-BEEP-SNOOZE”) and ends with the first day back at school. In between, full-color cartoon illustrations and short, upbeat poems, usually one per page, explore how children in diverse communities spend their summers. They line up on the sidewalk after hearing “the jingle jangle of the ice-cream truck!” They cool off by playing on a backyard slip 'n slide or by visiting the neighborhood pool, the lake, or the beach (where a child builds a sand castle only to see it washed away and another listens to a seashell). Summer also means a family road trip with all-too-frequent rest stops and a motel stay with treats like a giant TV, “teensy soaps and teensy shampoo / and beds made for bouncing.” A trip to an amusement park is captured in a creative shape poem about the thrills of a log ride and playful font changes that emphasize the ever changing perspective found on a Ferris wheel. Summer also includes going to camp as well as camping out in the backyard and enjoying s’mores and an astronomy lesson from Grandpa. As in the creators’ other Here I Come! books, the verse is peppy, with details sure to get kids jazzed, brought to life by the exuberant cartoon art. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Summertime fun. (Picture book/poetry. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 25, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-38721-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023

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