A sweet, well-paced tale about a common anxiety.
Darcy loves her bedtime routine.
Every night, she brushes her teeth with strawberry toothpaste right after she gets into her polka dot pajamas. Then her father reads her a picture book while she snuggles with Little Cat, her favorite animal and the hero of her favorite bedtime story. Finally, she falls asleep to the comforting sound of her father doing the dishes. When Darcy and her dad go to cousin Kayla’s house, the two girls have so much fun that Kayla asks if Darcy can sleep over. Darcy says yes, but it’s her first time sleeping away from home, and everything is just a little bit different. The nightgown she borrows from Kayla is scratchy, and the toothpaste is peppermint. The house is full of strange, new sounds. In this strange new place, will she ever be able to fall asleep? This gentle story is full of specific details that are both lyrical and comforting in their familiarity. Darcy’s conflicting feelings about her first sleepover feel authentic and are recognizable. In the end, Darcy is the one who solves her own problem, thereby modeling actions that children can take to soothe themselves. The illustrations use a cool palette and smudged lines that make the text feel intimate and cozy. Darcy, her dad, and her aunt all have brown skin and black hair; Kayla has pale skin and red hair.
A sweet, well-paced tale about a common anxiety. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-75590-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Safe to creep on by.
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)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.”
The cover’s glowing golden stars are but a small hint of the parent-child love inside.
In this companion book to the creators’ I Love You, My Little Unicorn (2022), a world full of digitally created dinosaurs illustrated in eye-catching colors dominates the pages. From the start, it’s clear that dinosaur parents have the same hopes and dreams for their offspring that human parents do. Readers don’t have to be dinosaur fans to smile when the parent-and-child dinosaur pairs playfully interact and share loving glances. Take special note of the ankylosauruses, whose tails arc to form a heart beneath a sky filled with heart-shaped clouds. The text in verse shares words of unconditional parental love and support and wisdom (“please remember all these things / that I want you to know”), appropriate for humans and dinos alike. “Roar with all your might!” “Spread your wings and fly.” “Use your voice, and ask for help.” There’s even a caveat that some “days will be dark / and other shades of gray.” But “there’s always brightness up ahead.” While the loving sentiments in the storytelling are clear, words are sometimes inverted to make the rhyme work, and the verse doesn’t always follow a consistent meter, but prereading will let the story shine during quiet snuggle times.
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728268361
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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