Distinctive and occasionally elegant, this might encourage children to offer their own meditations on how the natural world...
A collection of poetic sentences invites listeners to observe, celebrate, and sometimes follow natural environments in specific ways.
“Make the EARTH your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do.” Here, graceful and elegant stylized forms of several familiar animals (rhinoceros, seal, elephant, tiger, horse) prance across the rounded edge of the planet against a deep red-orange sky. A double-page spread illustrating “Learn from the SEA how to face harsh forces” shows a sailing vessel like Odysseus’ traversing dark waves under which a variety of teaming and slightly menacing sea creatures gathers. The colors throughout are intriguingly unusual, characterized by subdued hues: reds, purples, and grays. The solemn tone gives way to whimsy with this nod to lightheartedness: “Save some small piece of GRASSLAND for a red kite on a windy day,” as a young white girl is carried aloft by a flying red heart. Some openings work better than others. Unlike the pages before it, “See the ICECAPS glisten with crystalline majesty” offers little more than what is stated. Human figures throughout are abstract and diminutive. Facial features are indistinct, so the use of white silhouettes seems to imply that many to most of the humans depicted are white.
Distinctive and occasionally elegant, this might encourage children to offer their own meditations on how the natural world informs ways to live. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-56846-269-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems.
Rhyming poems introduce children to anthropomorphized trucks of all sorts, as well as the jobs that they do.
Adorable multiethnic children are the drivers of these 16 trucks—from construction equipment to city trucks, rescue vehicles and a semi—easily standing in for readers, a point made very clear on the final spread. Varying rhyme schemes and poem lengths help keep readers’ attention. For the most part, the rhymes and rhythms work, as in this, from “Cement Mixer”: “No time to wait; / he can’t sit still. / He has to beg your pardon. / For if he dawdles on the way, / his slushy load will harden.” Slonim’s trucks each sport an expressive pair of eyes, but the anthropomorphism stops there, at least in the pictures—Vestergaard sometimes takes it too far, as in “Bulldozer”: “He’s not a bully, either, / although he’s big and tough. / He waits his turn, plays well with friends, / and pushes just enough.” A few trucks’ jobs get short shrift, to mixed effect: “Skid-Steer Loader” focuses on how this truck moves without the typical steering wheel, but “Semi” runs with a royalty analogy and fails to truly impart any knowledge. The acrylic-and-charcoal artwork, set against white backgrounds, keeps the focus on the trucks and the jobs they are doing.
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5078-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender...
A polar-bear parent speaks poetically of love for a child.
A genderless adult and cub travel through the landscapes of an arctic year. Each of the softly rendered double-page paintings has a very different feel and color palette as the pair go through the seasons, walking through wintry ice and snow and green summer meadows, cavorting in the blue ocean, watching whales, and playing beside musk oxen. The rhymes of the four-line stanzas are not forced, as is the case too often in picture books of this type: “When cold, winter winds / blow the leaves far and wide, / You’ll cross the great icebergs / with me by your side.” On a dark, snowy night, the loving parent says: “But for now, cuddle close / while the stars softly shine. // I’ll always be yours, / and you’ll always be mine.” As the last illustration shows the pair curled up for sleep, young listeners will be lulled to sweet dreams by the calm tenor of the pictures and the words. While far from original, this timeless theme is always in demand, and the combination of delightful illustrations and poetry that scans well make this a good choice for early-childhood classrooms, public libraries, and one-on-one home read-alouds.
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender restrictions. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-070-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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