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
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
An invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way.
A young boy sees things a little differently than others.
Noah can see patterns in the dust when it sparkles in the sunlight. And if he puts his nose to the ground, he can smell the “green tang of the ants in the grass.” His most favorite thing of all, however, is to read. Noah has endless curiosity about how and why things work. Books open the door to those answers. But there is one question the books do not explain. When the wind comes whistling by, where does it go? Noah decides to find out. In a chase that has a slight element of danger—wind, after all, is unpredictable—Noah runs down streets, across bridges, near a highway, until the wind lifts him off his feet. Cowman’s gusty wisps show each stream of air turning a different jewel tone, swirling all around. The ribbons gently bring Noah home, setting him down under the same thinking tree where he began. Did it really happen? Worthington’s sensitive exploration leaves readers with their own set of questions and perhaps gratitude for all types of perspective. An author’s note mentions children on the autism spectrum but widens to include all who feel a little different.
An invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60554-356-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Redleaf Lane
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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