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THE SNOW LION

Name: THE SNOW LION
Author: Jim Helmore
ISBN: 978-1-68263-048-8

by Jim Helmore ; illustrated by Richard Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2018

A well-crafted tale about healthy adaptation to new environs merges with superb artwork.

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When young Caro moves to a new home with her mum, she derives comfort and strength from a mysterious, large, white lion.

The cover art and endpapers immediately draw readers into a world where a lion as enormous and gentle as the famous red dog Clifford will play a starring role. The story begins, however, with a dark, nighttime double-page spread showing a car heading up a hill toward Caro’s new house. Next, Caro explores her new home’s interior, as art verifies text: “The walls were white, the ceilings were white, and even the doors were white.” When Caro wishes for a playmate, the Snow Lion appears, and for a full week the two play and play. More than once, the wise Snow Lion encourages Caro to play with other children, and she finally connects, at the playground, with a welcoming boy named Bobby. Eventually, Caro’s mother engages Bobby and other young friends in a house-painting party. Will the colors eliminate the Snow Lion? The mixed-media artwork is a splendid complement, using just enough detail and geometric patterns against large planes of muted colors, both indoors and out. The human figures have solid, toddlerlike appearances, while the Snow Lion is appropriately well-camouflaged against the house’s white walls. Caro has pale skin and curly, auburn hair; Bobby is a boy of color with brown skin and black hair.

A well-crafted tale about healthy adaptation to new environs merges with superb artwork. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-68263-048-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Peachtree

Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
PAPER PLANES
by Jim Helmore ; illustrated by Richard Jones

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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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)