Subtle—yet spectacular and deeply moving. (Picture book. 3-8)
Can a circus bear escape her day-to-day abuse?
"Once there was a bear," the simple narrative begins. Her life is one of drudgery and pain; she lives in a cage all day and at night performs for noisy crowds who throw stones and poke her with sticks. Then one night...high in the mountains...the crowd yells at her to dance. Cymbals crash and trumpets blast and stones strike, strike, strike. The bear stands very still, until finally she quiets the crowd with a tremendous roar. Pictures tell the rest of the story. The looming silhouette of the bear is seen against a background of brown dirt littered with articles left by fleeing townspeople. Beyond, a tall pole reaches to the night sky at one end of the street. Racing to the pole, she climbs higher and higher until, against a sky full of Starry Night stars, she jumps into the heavens. Greder's darkly beautiful charcoal-and-pastel illustrations carry the weight of the storytelling—the people's faces look crude and cruel—and are abetted by a unique design. At the beginning, minimal text is on every left-hand page along with sketchy drawings of the bear, while the right has full-color pictures. Near the story's end, the pictures encroach on the left-hand pages, getting progressively larger until the text is gone.
Subtle—yet spectacular and deeply moving. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: July 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5136-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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