Charming, encouraging, and delightful. Go, Nick! (Picture book. 3-8)
In a mouse family of four nearly identical brothers, Nick always seems to be trying to catch up.
When Mommy gives them shirts of different colors so she can tell them apart, Mick, Vick, and Rick have very specific reasons for their color choices. Nick gets the one that’s left over. Nick also likes his brothers’ tasty food selections, but he alone is willing to try a plain green salad. Mick, Vick, and Rick all know what they want to be when they grow up, but Nick is keeping his options open. He rides his bike and runs as fast as he can, lagging behind the others in each activity. Even when they pick flowers for Mommy, he is left with a “small green sprout.” He has been cheerful about most things, but this time he is really disappointed and sad. The next day he finds that his sprout has developed into a beautiful, unusual flower. The father-daughter creative team’s little mouse family is warm and sweet. Nick’s brothers may lead him but they don’t tease him (much), and Mommy is loving, patient, and accepting. She understands that, like the flower, Nick is a late bloomer. The lively acrylic illustrations are rendered in soft, clear colors on a lightly textured background and move speedily across double-page spreads. Treacle and honey are assiduously avoided, leaving gentle reassurance for self-doubting little readers.
Charming, encouraging, and delightful. Go, Nick! (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: June 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4169-5506-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
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
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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