WHEN I LOOK UP

Name: WHEN I LOOK UP
Author: Ellen DeLange
ISBN: 978-1-60537-431-4

by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Jenny Meilihove ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2019

Wish, imagine, wonder, hope, dream…and choose a different book about imaginative flights of fancy and appreciating the here...

bookshelf

A young child relates all the everyday things observed and encountered that spark a sense of wonder in this Dutch import.

From the back of a spring horse at the playground, the child spies a plane and thinks of “flying to faraway places.” Some cloud-watching leads to imagining “join[ing] the parade.” And while harvesting carrots (in the dark!), the child spots a white rabbit in the moon and wants to share. A shooting star, some butterflies, and a rainbow are more ordinary than the giant giraffes and less harmful than the balloon release that finds the child wondering if one might carry a note aloft. The ending is a bit out-of-the-blue. Although her pup appears in each scene, there’s been no interaction between the two, so the child’s declaration that “everything that makes me HAPPY is right here in front of me” rings a little false. It’s exemplary (and rather noteworthy) that only two scenes are indoors. Background people have diverse skin tones while the child has a red dress, peach skin, a dark pageboy, and bright red cheeks and nose. Indeed, the illustrations are a bit stylized and odd, with humans who mostly have noses that range from pink to bright red, almost clownlike, especially when paired with too-small cone-shaped hats with pompoms on top, as several people sport.

Wish, imagine, wonder, hope, dream…and choose a different book about imaginative flights of fancy and appreciating the here and now. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: May 15, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-60537-431-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clavis

Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THEO'S PRINCESS
by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Monty Lee

- BOOK REVIEW
PITTER, PATTER, GOES THE RAIN
by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Anna Lindsten

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO IS SHRIEKING SO EARLY?
by Ellen DeLange ; illustrated by Zafouko Yamamoto

bookshelf

WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES, MR. BROWN?

by Justin Rhodes ; illustrated by Heather Dickinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2023

Pedestrian.

bookshelf

Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.

Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 14, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals

Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

bookshelf

TOYS GALORE

by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children...

bookshelf

A fizzy yet revealing romp through the toy world.

Though of standard picture-book size, Stein and illustrator Staake’s latest collaboration (Bugs Galore, 2012, etc.) presents a sweeping compendium of diversions for the young. From fairies and gnomes, race cars and jacks, tin cans and socks, to pots ’n’ pans and a cardboard box, Stein combs the toy kingdom for equally thrilling sources of fun. These light, tightly rhymed quatrains focus nicely on the functions characterizing various objects, such as “Floaty, bubbly, / while-you-wash toys” or “Sharing-secrets- / with-tin-cans toys,” rather than flatly stating their names. Such ambiguity at once offers Staake free artistic rein to depict copious items capable of performing those tasks and provides pre-readers ample freedom to draw from the experiences of their own toy chests as they scan Staake’s vibrant spreads brimming with chunky, digitally rendered objects and children at play. The sense of community and sharing suggested by most of the spreads contributes well to Stein’s ultimate theme, which he frames by asking: “But which toy is / the best toy ever? / The one most fun? / Most cool and clever?” Faced with three concluding pages filled with all sorts of indoor and outside toys to choose from, youngsters may be shocked to learn, on turning to the final spread, that the greatest one of all—“a toy SENSATION!”—proves to be “[y]our very own / imagination.”

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)