The opening spread is breathtakingly lovely: “Flora, Florica, Kukka, Lore, Hana and Zvetana mean flower.” Scattered over these two pages are monotype, collage and line-drawing images of flowers, stems and floral parts, as well as little notes: “Hana—Japanese girl’s name”; “Lore—Basque girl’s name.” With the information that Gul is a Turkish girl’s name that means rose is an exquisite line drawing of a rose on its side with the face of a small girl appearing from the petals. She’s asleep. Other versions of the name Rose are noted in other languages, like Rhodanthe in Greek. Girassol means sunflower in Portuguese, and a girl with a sunflower face rides a bicycle. Csilla means bluebell in Hungarian, and the tiny face of a red-haired girl peers from a bluebell blossom against a background of blue stars. Many girls, such as Kamilka (chamomile), wear parts of their flowers as hat, skirt or cloak. Gelsomina in Italian and Yasmina in Arabic both mean jasmine, and she wears fairy wings; Erika (heather in German) sprouts heather blossoms from her hands and hair and pelvis. Precious in the very best sense of the word, these sophisticated, delicate images repay repeated examination, as well as sending the sweet message that girls are thought as beautiful as flowers all over the world. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55498-099-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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