A warm, sweet, beautifully illustrated book that’s great for reading aloud, although it leaves dads out of the parenting...
This illustrated children’s book celebrates the joy of mothers taking care of babies across the animal kingdom.
“What makes a Mama happy?” That’s the central question that Pelley (Raj the Bookstore Tiger, 2012, etc.) asks in her latest book, which follows the course of a day: what makes a mother happy “at the dawn of day,” “as the sun begins to climb,” “as clouds shuffle by,” “as twilight glimmers,” and “at hush of night”? And finally, what makes her happiest, overall? The answer, for mothers both human and animal (including a panda, a seal, a kangaroo, an elephant, a monkey, a penguin, and an eagle), is always related to what makes their babies happy—a full stomach, learning about the world, playing, building independence, singing, and, above all else, being loved. Each section ends with a comfortable formula that sums things up: for example, “That’s a—my baby’s belly’s full kind of Happy Mama,” or “That’s a—see my baby go kind of Happy Mama.” The tone is sweet and whimsical, with a lot of alliteration and sometimes rhyme. Seals, for instance, go “Diving deep for a fishy feast…then follow with a flip flap floppy honk of delight!”; a monkey and her baby “Dip and dangle, all a tangle, in a topsy-turvy, fun fandango.” This verbal playfulness makes this book an excellent choice for reading aloud, and Harper (The Kissing Hand, 1996, etc.) offers beautiful illustrations with plenty of absorbing detail. Her soft color washes depict mother-baby play and affection with great charm, and Harper does a wonderful job of capturing the diversity of nature and people and, in particular, the adorability of babies of all kinds. But the book’s view of child care is female-only: an older sister cares for her baby brother at one point, but fathers and brothers are left out of the book entirely. This may be accurate for some animal families, but among humans, mamas often aren’t the only ones who care for their children in the ways depicted here.
A warm, sweet, beautifully illustrated book that’s great for reading aloud, although it leaves dads out of the parenting equation.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58760-160-6
Page Count: 30
Publisher: CWLA Press
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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