This one can be skipped.
An Indian American girl is initially reluctant when her parents announce it’s time to wear a bindi to school.
While Varadarajan’s author’s note states that many Hindu women and girls do not strictly follow the tradition of wearing the bindi—the red mark worn between the brows—there is no such flexibility in Divya’s house. Both Divya’s parents think it’s time Divya starts wearing a bindi, with her father adding that she’ll look “so beautiful.” But Divya fears that her classmates Sam, Sally, and Sania will make fun of her. Despite her palpable anxiety, Amma tells her that “the time has come,” and Divya chooses a bindi to wear to school. Her fears that her classmates will mock her don’t come to pass, and she comes to love the bindi and even gives a speech to her class about why. The book feels less like a story of a girl learning to embrace her culture and more a heavy-handed exhortation to do so—a startling choice given the increase in Hindu nationalism in both India and the Indian Hindu diaspora. Amma, who wears the bindi even while sleeping, insists that wearing a bindi is “what Hindu girls do.” Though the illustrations are appealing, Divya’s internal monologue about why she loves wearing the bindi is preachy, and the author’s note feels judgmental toward Indian Americans who prefer not to embrace certain traditions. Divya’s classmates are racially diverse; Sam is brown-skinned, Sally is light-skinned, and Sania is, like Divya, Indian American. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
This one can be skipped. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-59881-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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