A clear victory for a pufferfish and, more importantly, readers.
A small, bespectacled pufferfish must face the everyday reality of being a small fish in a world full of big fishes.
Readers first see the pufferfish swimming alone, totally unaware of a giant eye looking in its direction. As the fish makes its way along, it passes in front of two giant eyes; these, it notices. “Gulp.” The fish glances back in fear. Thinking it's escaped unscathed, the fish breathes a sigh of relief just as a long tentacle sneaks up from behind. “Hello, little guy! Let’s play… / Catch of the Day!” says a big octopus that’s just a bit too friendly. Allen wrings a lot of humor from the wickedly funny abuse the octopus inflicts on the pufferfish, inventing a series of bizarre scenarios that increase in absurdity. The hand-lettered text, meanwhile, twists and turns on the page according to the whims of the octopus. The book at times recalls Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat (2012) in both subversive humor and minimalist aesthetic. Muted, vague strokes coil and curl around the yellow pufferfish and white octopus, conveying motion and contrasting against a plain backdrop that alternates between sea green and light blue. Eventually, the octopus wonders if the “cute” fish tastes “cute” and pops it in its (anatomically incorrect) mouth. “Ohh! You taste adorabl….” Though knowing readers will predict what happens next, it nonetheless still packs a punch.
A clear victory for a pufferfish and, more importantly, readers. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-525-42825-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
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
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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