Stick with this story—it’s a winner.
With an active imagination, the sky (er…the stick) is the limit!
When an expressive young child with straight brown hair and pale skin—and their equally expressive dog—finds a stick in the yard, the child recognizes it as a “remarkable toy” that can be used for a variety of purposes, from battling nighttime closet monsters to pretending to be a seal balancing it on their nose to using it as a magic wand. The story is a love letter to both creativity and the childhood exuberance of imaginative play. Yolen’s verse is pithy and direct: “A stick is a sword / to tame monsters of dread. / Or bend it to use as a / large bow instead. // It can anchor a ship. // It can hold down a pulley. // A stick draws the line / between you and a bully.” The real stars of the show, however, are the illustrations, which capture the actions and joys of the child, although at times their excitement is overshadowed by the expressions of the black-and-white dog, who skirts the line between realism and caricature. Readers, both solo and in large groups, will love the rhymes, the big, bold illustrative choices, and the message that imagination is the best playmate of them all. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Stick with this story—it’s a winner. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-56846-365-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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