If lack of substance is the point, it’s right on the mark.
All the positives about negative space.
“Nothing” is a complicated concept to explain—but Rusch attempts to simplify the matter (or lack thereof) through a series of musings. Nothing can be the space between you and other objects, the spaces between written words, the gap after you lose a tooth, or the rests between notes in a song. Personal space can be nothing—and you can have too much, too little, or just the right amount. Nothing is represented visually throughout using paper-white negative space, including on a spread about outer space being “mostly nothing.” Goss’ cut-paper illustrations, outlined with thick black lines, depict a variety of children with skin the varying colors of the pages enjoying nothingness in many ways. Though it’s attractive enough, as a whole the book feels thin, with little to entice kids to return for rereads. Backmatter offers more information “about nothing” and proposes mindfulness and art activities to help kids appreciate negative space, though written instructions could use more clarity—one activity suggests readers “fold a sheet of paper in half. Cut a half circle and a half banana from the folded side and another half circle from the edge above. When you unfold the paper, you’ll see a smiling face.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
If lack of substance is the point, it’s right on the mark. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-62354-352-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children.
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format.
Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.”
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-742-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this.
From “Apple” to “Zebra,” an alphabet of images drawn from museum paintings.
In an exhibition that recalls similar, if less parochial, ABCs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (My First ABC, 2009) and several other institutions, Hahn presents a Eurocentric selection of paintings or details to illustrate for each letter a common item or animal—all printed with reasonable clarity and captioned with identifying names, titles, and dates. She then proceeds to saddle each with an inane question (“What sounds do you think this cat is making?” “Where can you find ice?”) and a clumsily written couplet that unnecessarily repeats the artist’s name: “Flowers are plants that blossom and bloom. / Frédéric Bazille painted them filling up this room!” She also sometimes contradicts the visuals, claiming that the horses in a Franz Marc painting entitled “Two Horses, 1912” are ponies, apparently to populate the P page. Moreover, her “X” is an actual X-ray of a Jean-Honoré Fragonard, showing that the artist repainted his subject’s face…interesting but not quite in keeping with the familiar subjects chosen for the other letters.
Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this. (Informational picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5107-4938-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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