Simple but silly and satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)
Wild adventure follows when some lemurs take a shine to a slightly wary boy.
The boy is holding an ice cream cone, and the lemur clutches a red flower. Their eyes lock; the lemur’s smile says it all: “[O]nce a lemur takes a liking to you, there is not much that can be done about it.” The boy tries to slip away, even climbing up a tree, but he can’t shake the lemur, who manages to attract a few more. The boy hops on his bike, but he can’t elude the quartet of lemurs following on a bike of their own. In no time, the boy’s being hugged by several new pals who want to play. Still uncomfortable, he hops on a train, takes to the sky in a hot air balloon, jumps in a boat to cross the lake, climbs the highest mountain, and travels through the desert in the scorching heat, on a camel. And on every leg of this odyssey, the lemurs aren’t far behind...though they are hiding. When the boy decides that he has eluded the lemurs, he realizes that he’s far from home and doesn’t know how to get back. That’s where his determined new friends come in. Preston-Gannon’s lemurs are quite adorable. Each two-page spread is beautifully evocative, with basic shapes and shrewd use of white space.
Simple but silly and satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1131-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too many bugs, figuratively.
Lucy, “the youngest member of a family of fireflies,” must overcome an irrational, moon-induced anxiety in order to leave her family tree trunk and glow.
The first six pages pull readers into a lush, beautiful world of nighttime: “When the sun has set, silence falls over the Big Forest, and all of the nighttime animals wake up.” Mixed media provide an enchanting forest background, with stylized flora and fauna eventually illuminated by a large, benign moon, because the night “doesn’t like to catch them by surprise.” Turning the page catches readers by surprise, though: the family of fireflies is decidedly comical and silly-looking. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!’ ” It’s an acceptable change, but more unevenness follows. Lucy’s excitement about finally joining the other bugs turns to “sobbing” two nights in a row. Instead of directly linking her behavior to understandable reactions of children to newness, the text undermines itself by making Lucy’s parents’ sweet reassurances impotent and using the grandmother’s scientific explanation of moonlight as an unnecessary metaphor. Further detracting from the story, the text becomes ever denser and more complex over the book’s short span.
Too many bugs, figuratively. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-84-16147-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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