Skip the narrator’s distraction and just enjoy all the familiar allusions.
As a narrator tries to recite “Little Bo Peep,” chaos erupts.
Though it won’t be clear to readers whether Bo Peep herself or the people and animals that populate these pages are the ones causing the narrator so much angst, it likely won’t matter—they will be too busy pointing out and searching for clever references to Mother Goose rhymes hidden in the illustrations: Bo Peep’s lost sheep steal the mittens of the Three Little Kittens, an annoying fly is shooed on almost every spread (eventually to be swallowed by an old woman), and the farmer’s wife is threatening the blind mice with her knife. Very observant readers will be able to follow the individual stories of several characters as they go about their business—the kittens trying to get their mittens back, the Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe shopping—but most of the illustrations reflect the hullabaloo of the subtitle. Flowers’ artwork is busy indeed—share one on one, as the pictures require poring over—but for children who stick with it, surprises abound. And for those not up to speed on their nursery rhymes, four spreads of backmatter give the text for each of the 39 rhymes along with a thumbnail illustration so readers can go back and find them.
Skip the narrator’s distraction and just enjoy all the familiar allusions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62370-501-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Girl science power and new friendships make for a good combination.
In Fliess’ update, Mary is an inventive scientist, but she’s a lonely one.
“Mary had a little lab. / She tested and created. / While other kids were at the park, / she built and calculated.” The window of her lab provides views of the kids’ fun, and they inspire her to make a friend. Literally. She bikes to a farm for a snip of wool and heads back to use her latest invention: the Sheepinator. The resultant pet is everything she could hope for, not only providing companionship, but also helping out around the house and lab. And when he follows her to school, the kids all ask for their own wooly friends. What could possibly go wrong? Bouloubasis’ hysterical illustrations show the chaos that ensues, but the scientist and her new human friends think of a clever solution that leaves the whole town satisfied…and warm. Fliess’ verses include enough of the original poem (but tweaked) to tickle readers’ funny bones, and the rhyme and rhythm are spot-on. Mary is a wild-haired white redhead who is depicted as safety-conscious (bike helmet, ear protection, rubber gloves, etc.); the other kids are a diverse group. Most diverse (and somewhat distracting) of all are the noses on their faces—all sizes, shapes, and colors.
Girl science power and new friendships make for a good combination. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4982-7
Page Count: 37
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
There’s always tomorrow.
A lyrical message of perseverance and optimism.
The text uses direct address, which the title- and final-page illustrations suggest comes from an adult voice, to offer inspiration and encouragement. The opening spreads reads, “Tonight as you sleep, a new day stirs. / Each kiss good night is a wish for tomorrow,” as the accompanying art depicts a child with black hair and light skin asleep in a bed that’s fantastically situated in a stylized landscape of buildings, overpasses, and roadways. The effect is dreamlike, in contrast with the next illustration, of a child of color walking through a field and blowing dandelion fluff at sunrise. Until the last spread, each child depicted in a range of settings is solitary. Some visual metaphors falter in terms of credibility, as in the case of a white-appearing child using a wheelchair in an Antarctic ice cave strewn with obstacles, as the text reads “you’ll explore the world, only feeling lost in your imagination.” Others are oblique in attempted connections between text and art. How does a picture of a pale-skinned, black-haired child on a bridge in the rain evoke “first moments that will dance with you”? But the image of a child with pink skin and brown hair scaling a wall as text reads “there will be injustice that will challenge you, and it will surprise you how brave you can be” is clearer.
There’s always tomorrow. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-99437-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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