An important environmental message obscurely delivered.
A young Asháninka girl in the Peruvian rain forest enjoys exploring her surroundings—until one day she sees something that frightens her.
Zonia is Asháninka, the largest Indigenous group living in the Peruvian Amazon rain forest. “Every morning, the rain forest calls to Zonia. / Every morning, Zonia answers.” Following a blue morpho butterfly, she greets the sloths; sings with the birds; says hello to a band of coatis; rides on a jaguar; watches Amazon river dolphins swim by; congratulates a giant anteater with new babies; sits on a giant lily pad as a caiman floats nearby; and even hangs upside down side by side with a boa constrictor. Sweet illustrations done on handmade banana-bark paper depict a spunky and happy brown-skinned child with high cheekbones and long black hair flying in the wind. Zonia’s life as portrayed here feels beyond idyllic—cartoonishly so, if not for the quality of the art. Abruptly, after her sequence of delightful encounters, Zonia comes across a section of the forest that has been clear-cut. Frightened, she runs home and tells her mother the forest needs help. When her mother tells her the forest “is speaking to you,” Zonia declares, “We all must answer”—and the book ends. With no buildup or explanation, the last sentence carries no emotional weight. The real substance of the book is in its backmatter. There, readers will find the story translated into the Asháninka language by Arlynder Sett Gaspar Paulino, information on the Asháninka and the Amazon rain forest, and the names of the animals depicted in the story. A Spanish edition, La selva de Zonia, publishes simultaneously.
An important environmental message obscurely delivered. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0845-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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