Moralizing bows out in favor of a clever celebration of how our experiences affect our selves.
Convention is upended in this striking tale of individuality and change.
“Black. Orange. This. Not that.” From the day they are hatched, young caterpillars are informed by their butterfly guardians how to think and how to act. All obey except for Charley. While the others eat ceaselessly, Charley looks up into the canopy and gazes at the trees and clouds and stars. While the others dream of becoming butterflies, Charley imagines what it would be like to be a deer or a waterfall. And as the butterflies tell their charges what to think, Charley finds new things to discover. At last, the day comes for all caterpillars to form their chrysalises, and Charley worries. But while inside, the wayward caterpillar imagines far more than just orange and black, so that when at last the new butterflies emerge, the protagonist’s wings reflect “everything Charley had ever loved.” Storytelling that could have come off as heavy-handed is instead treated here with an elegant touch. Wise produces lush, lovely spreads, not only of the standard monarch colors, but of a world far beyond their perceived limitations. The reveal at the end is evocative of that final spread in Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969) but with an entirely different thought process at work. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Moralizing bows out in favor of a clever celebration of how our experiences affect our selves. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-42904-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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
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
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