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ABIGAIL

Name: ABIGAIL
Author: Catherine Rayner
ISBN: 978-1-58925-147-2

by Catherine Rayner ; illustrated by Catherine Rayner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2013

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Gorgeous, lush illustrations strengthen a somewhat loosely connected story.

Abigail is a giraffe who loves to count. She tries to count the spots on a ladybug, the stripes on a zebra and the splotches on a cheetah. But no one will stay still long enough. Then Ladybug suggests counting a field of flowers, and Zebra and Cheetah offer their help. Abigail finds that her friends are “not very good at counting,” so she spends the day teaching them. By the time they get the hang of it, though, darkness has fallen. But all is not in vain. With a dramatic vertical gatefold, Abigail shows them the stars to count. Rayner’s sumptuous watercolors both realistically portray the animals (managing to make Abigail endearing as well) and give readers a sense of the evocative atmosphere of the African savanna. Where the book weakens is in its page design and ending. Three double-page spreads, leading readers’ eyes backward instead of forward have the unwanted consequence of stalling the page-turns in an already haltingly paced story. The ending, when it arrives, is lackluster and leaves readers with little of the sense of the grandeur the illustrations evoke. A richly illustrated story that could benefit from better page design and crisper storytelling. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-58925-147-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
MOLLY, OLIVE, AND DEXTER
by Catherine Rayner ; illustrated by Catherine Rayner

- BOOK REVIEW
VICTOR, THE WOLF WITH WORRIES
by Catherine Rayner ; illustrated by Catherine Rayner

- BOOK REVIEW
BERT, THE BOWERBIRD
by Julia Donaldson ; illustrated by Catherine Rayner

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LOVE FROM THE CRAYONS

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 24, 2019

As ephemeral as a valentine.

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Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.

Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.

As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)