Though best appreciated by Catholic audiences, an excellent collection for a wide range of Christian believers
French illustrator Puybaret brings his lustrous soft-edged artwork to a new book of common prayer.
Opening with the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father), the selections chosen include biblical devotions, traditional prayers, and the prayers of saints, all largely in the Roman Catholic tradition. While Protestant audiences will feel the Our Father cuts off abruptly and might bristle at the Hail Mary, there is much to love for the faithful of diverse persuasions. At turns worshipful and introspective, the thoughtful prayers call for mindful compassion, empathetic living, and kindness, generosity, and mercy in the lives of believers. Puybaret, known for his whimsical, dreamlike style, brings that same sense of reverie to the real world in pensive vignettes. Particularly poignant is an illustration featuring a barefoot young man, surrounded by rubble and smoke but enveloped by a soft glow as he reaches out to a young sapling thrusting upward despite the chaos around it, which appears alongside St. Francis’ prayer for peace: “Where there is hatred, let me sow love / … / where there is despair, hope.” Though the prayers of saints are attributed to their authors, sources for scriptural prayers such as the Our Father and Magnificat are lacking references. Sadly, while there are some people of color depicted, most of the people in the illustrations appear white, even those based on Middle Eastern biblical characters.
Though best appreciated by Catholic audiences, an excellent collection for a wide range of Christian believers . (Picture book/religion. 4-10)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5538-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it.
Former National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman invites girls to raise their voices and make a difference.
“Today, we finally have a say,” proclaims the first-person plural narration as three girls (one presents Black, another is brown-skinned, and the third is light-skinned) pass one another marshmallows on a stick around a campfire. In Wise’s textured, almost three-dimensional illustrations, the trio traverse fantastical, often abstract landscapes, playing, demonstrating, eating, and even flying, while confident rhymes sing their praises and celebrate collective female victories. The phrase “LIBERATION. FREEDOM. RESPECT” appears on a protest sign that bookends their journey. Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world. Sometimes family members or other diverse comrades surround the girls, emphasizing that power comes from community. Gorman is careful to specify that “some of us go by she / And some of us go by they.” She affirms, too, that each person is “a different shape and size,” though the art doesn’t show much variation in body type. Characters also vary in ability. Real-life figures emerge as the girls dream of past luminaries such as author Octavia Butler and activist Marsha P. Johnson, along with present-day role models including poet and journalist Plestia Alaqad and athlete Sha’carri Richardson; silhouettes stand in for heroines as yet unknown. Imagining that “we are where change is going” is hopeful indeed.
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593624180
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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