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ARCTIC WHITE

Name: ARCTIC WHITE
Author: Danna Smith
ISBN: 978-1-62779-104-5

by Danna Smith ; illustrated by Lee White ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 5, 2016

Despite lovely art, a stereotypically generic and romanticized portrayal of indigenous people.

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The Arctic winter is white and gray until something special happens.

“When you live in the Arctic in winter,” opens the second-person narration, “everything is a shade of white.” “You” are a young girl, longing for color. White hues are described—blue-white tundra, the yellow-white of the polar bear, the silver-white of the arctic fox—and outsize, delicate snowflakes drift down. One night, “you hear a hum in the air,” and grandfather takes you walking on the tundra to see the northern lights, lush color swaths across the sky. Illustrator White uses watercolor on textured paper to give the snow’s surface a gentle nubbiness and depth. Ink delicately outlines human and animal figures. However, setting and culture are unclear. A modern paint box, a bound book, and a flashlight, together with the second-person, present-tense address (placing readers inside the story), imply a contemporary setting, but this girl lives a nonindustrialized life in an iglu, even though most contemporary indigenous Arctic people live in houses. The lack of any specific indigenous nation and some faux Native philosophy—“Grandfather says hope is golden. You can only see it when you look into a snowy owl’s eyes”—add to the romanticized Native image. Jan Bourdeau Waboose’s SkySisters (2000), an Ojibwe story about walking across tundra to see the northern lights, is a better choice.

Despite lovely art, a stereotypically generic and romanticized portrayal of indigenous people. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-62779-104-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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by Danna Smith ; illustrated by Pati Aguilera ; narrated by Holly Turton

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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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HOW TO CATCH A MAMASAURUS

From the How To Catch… series

by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024

A syrupy tribute to mothers that may please fans of the series.

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Another creature is on the loose.

The long-running series continues its successful formula with this Hallmark card of a book, which features bright illustrations and catchy rhymes. This time, the mythical creature the racially diverse children set out to catch is an absent mom who does it all (lists of descriptors include the words banker, caregiver, nurse, doctor, driver, chef, housekeeper, teacher, entertainer, playmate, laundry service, problem solver, handywoman, cleaner, and alarm clock) but doesn’t seem to have a job outside the home and is inexplicably a dinosaur. As the children prepare gifts and a meal for her, the text becomes an ode to the skills the Mamasaurus possesses (“Day or night she’s always there. / She meets every wish and need”) and values she instills (“Sometimes life can mean hard work,” “kindness matters,” and “what counts is doing your best”). This well-intentioned selection veers into cliche generously sprinkled with saccharine but manages to redeem itself with its appreciation for mothers and all that they may do. Endpapers include a “to” and “from” page framed in a heart, as well as a page where young gift givers or recipients can draw a picture of their Mamasaurus.