A truly inclusive, heartfelt (guide) dog tale.
A picture book honored internationally for its depiction of disability portrays the friendship between a girl and her dog.
Lola, says the narrator, is her best friend, even if they don't always agree. When they met, Lola was ill and afraid to go outside, trembling at the sound of cars. But with patience, they could explore more and more together. Domeniconi's warm, soft-focus illustrations are inviting as the pair shop in an Italian city, have a snack in the park, go tobogganing, and even have their portrait painted at the seashore. Such touches as the televised black-and-white movie glimpsed through their window are casually comforting. The narrator's fond descriptions of Lola running on the beach and becoming entangled in many-textured clothes imply that Lola, "that little scoundrel," is the black Lab in the pictures. Not until a luminous hand reaches out in a two-page spread of misty blue-blackness does the narrator explain: Lola, blinded in a car accident five years ago, is her human. She, Star, is Lola's guide dog. Though the illustrations offer clues as to who's who, the clues' likely invisibility to blind readers lends this revelation additional surprise and emphasizes Segré's equally strong text. Composed of vivid, sight-free sensory details, the text's parallel treatment of Star and Lola symbolizes the close bond between dog and human, felt rather than seen.
A truly inclusive, heartfelt (guide) dog tale. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55455-363-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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