Diversity, love and affection depicted visually, and a small format easily shared between an adult and a child add up to...
Is it a universal truth that all grandmas indulge their grandchildren?
The grandmas in this book hail from many different countries, as indicated on an unlabeled map stretched across the front endpapers, with thumbnail pictures of interior illustrations as keys. There are visual clues as to geography in the illustrations (a Hawaiian appliqued quilt, a palm-lined cricket field, some architectural details in some illustrations, a jeepney with a license plate “Love2U Filipinas”), and different skin colors and hair textures provide hints to racial differences, but readers may need to look elsewhere to confirm country names. The mixed-media illustrations have a cartoonish cast, but the people are individuals, with some grandmas looking quite young and others much older, just as in real families. The rhyming text is simple, but it emphasizes the personalities and interests of the grown-ups and the connections that grandmas make with their grandchildren: “My grandma’s favorite hat does not have fancy bows. / She wears it when she’s fixing cars, / or in her workout clothes.” Some stereotypes are broken (the Belgian car-fixing granny), some endure (the Brazilian grandma’s fear of frogs). The companion volume Grandpa’s Favorite features different countries but uses the same format. Both end with small pictorial vignettes showing how grandparents and grandkids separated by distance stay in touch.
Diversity, love and affection depicted visually, and a small format easily shared between an adult and a child add up to good choices for Grandparent’s Day or the year round. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-617-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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