A well-meaning and eye-catching work that nevertheless misses the mark.
A self-conscious book meets its perfect reader.
Unlike the library’s more well-known stories, which boast stunning illustrations or golden letters, the titular book has never been read. Shelved in a dark corner, it shies away from readers’ glances, chanting, “I’m just a ghost, nobody can see me.” But one day, a blind girl specifically seeks out the book. It vehemently protests as she starts to open it…and finally it confesses that it’s blank. Undaunted, the girl reveals that the book isn’t meant to be read via sight. Its seemingly blank pages are written in braille, “the language you read with your fingertips.” Happily, the book realizes that “no one story [is] better than any other, that they [are] just different.” Chen’s cut-paper illustrations are striking. Most objects and people, the blind girl included, are the white of the page, which evokes a sense of invisibility, while jewel-toned creatures suggest enticing adventures as they swirl from open books. Sadly, mixed messages mar this tale, translated from Spanish. The book’s being “hidden away” implies that it’s been segregated from the other titles, which feels incongruent with the morals of inclusion and acceptance. While the girl’s “crystal” voice and “bright as a butterfly” laugh suit the story’s fairy tale–esque tone, they may also evoke the trope of portraying disabled people as angelic. Though informative backmatter correctly defines braille as a writing system rather than a language, this important distinction is unfortunately omitted from the primary text.
A well-meaning and eye-catching work that nevertheless misses the mark. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781915244765
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Lantana
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.
The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.
Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593621110
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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