Kiss this one off.
Inspired by an old story, a frog goes out in search of a princess who will kiss him and turn him into a prince in this Dutch and Belgian import.
Not all of the princesses who appear in Lee’s pale, dainty scenes are White, but the story’s underlying moral is as conventional as ever. Theo’s personal inquiries turn up no candidates, but when he distributes posters with a time and place to gather, a parade of smiling, neatly turned-out young girls sporting crowns queue up for smooches. Alas, no transformation occurs—until Sofia, a beautiful green straggler in plainer dress, hops up and, despite her announcement that that she’s no princess, gives him a kiss that makes him feel like a real prince. Off the two frogs caper amid a cloud of butterflies, certain of living “happily ever after.” The tiresome message that young readers may be assured of the same if only they will stick to their own kind and class really doesn’t need another iteration—particularly when it features unattached girls literally lining up to be tested and then instantly disappearing from view when found wanting. Adam Rex and Scott Campbell’s XO, Ox (2017) or Leslie Braunstein and Joshua S. Brunet’s I’m in Love With a Big Blue Frog (2013), for instance, offer less parochial views of romance, and to give princesses a better showing, Dolores Brown’s The Truly Brave Princesses, illustrated by Sonja Wimmer (2018), is just a beginning. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.2-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Kiss this one off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-60537-640-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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