This lost kitten will easily find enraptured readers, especially among cat lovers.
A girl and her mother give a kitten a forever home.
In this charming import from Japan via New Zealand, Hina and her mom discover a kitten on their doorstep. It’s been brought to them by its own mother, who seems to beg this family to take in and care for her scrawny newborn. Though Hina is initially reluctant to keep the newcomer, her mother agrees immediately and begins to demonstrate for her daughter—and readers—responsible, loving ways to care for a helpless new pet: gently washing it; promising a next-day visit to the vet; advising soft stroking; feeding it; and encouraging Hina to let the animal be while it acclimates. After such tender TLC, the kitten finds safe haven under some furniture, and girl and mom fashion some important cat necessities. By this time, the child’s changed her mind, but the plot turns when Hina suddenly realizes the kitten is missing and searches everywhere, finally locating her new pet in her closet, blissfully napping on her sweater. The simple storyline is sweetly told. The paint-and–colored-pencil illustrations stand out, with Sakai achieving a textured, scratchy, smudged look that wonderfully captures both the humans’ and the cats’ personalities; the adorable, blue-eyed kitten is marvelously realistic and winsome, its coat palpably soft. Mother and daughter have pinkish-tan skin, and Hina, especially, is most expressive.
This lost kitten will easily find enraptured readers, especially among cat lovers. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77657-126-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
