Quirky, earnest—and sweet, indeed.
When two creatures meet, the language skills of one enhance both their lives.
Creature-Of-No-Words—a large, orange being—lacks the words to articulate his experiences. But silence isn’t problematic when Creature-Of-No-Words is gazing peacefully out to sea or happily flinging pebbles skyward. Whether eating something yummy or warming himself by a fire, he seems self-sufficient despite his wordlessness. Yet at other times, he becomes deeply despondent. He thumps his chest, emits “a deep-down belly groan,” and cries. On one such day, the smaller Creature-Of-Words happens by. She knows how to name her moods, that something delicious is a “Treat! Treat!”—and that this big, sad creature needs a “Hug! Hug!” Award-winning poet Agard’s pithy triplets are laced with occasional rhymes. Kitamura’s illustrations, filled with all-over patterns for orange fur, tree bark, and greenery, reinforce Agard’s suggestion that Creature-Of-Words introduces not only language, but civilization. “From that day the two of them lived / together in a house where words also lived, / which was all well and good.” The duo are now silhouetted inside a conventional home (not the male’s previous cave), with word bubbles drifting from the chimney like balloons. The pair’s respective companions—birds and small mammals—form harmonious bonds, too. When enough has been said, all enjoy the “sweet silence” of a “no-words night beside the fire.”
Quirky, earnest—and sweet, indeed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781915252470
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scallywag Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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