An impressively understated, respectful exploration of a big change.
The characters from The Airport Book (2016) and The Hospital Book (2023) help young readers make sense of another challenging childhood experience: moving.
“Our family moves a lot,” a child in a baseball cap tells a younger sibling. “But you probably don’t remember.” As the young narrator reminisces about the family’s “tiny apartment in a big house,” the accompanying image shows Mom, clearly expecting, dressing a younger, diaper-clad version of the protagonist. Later, they relocated to “the tall building with a lot of stairs.” Here, the bigger sibling rests on the stairs while Dad, baby in a front pack, lugs a grocery bag. When they lived in “the big building with three elevators,” trick-or-treating took place indoors, and “Grandpa lived far away, but Nana and Poppa were near.” Finally, the narrator asks, “Remember when we moved into this house?” A “sold” sign by the door hints that more moving’s in store. “Sometimes I don’t want to move,” the narrator confides, but in the final pages, the new house, with its bunk beds and lovely garden, looks a lot like home. Relying on a pitch-perfect combination of minimal text and expansive artwork, Brown once more offers a richly vivid, honest, and reassuring depiction of a potentially unfamiliar experience. Her colorful, clean-lined cartoons are full of sweet vignettes—each scene is practically a story in itself—and charming, humorous details that often gently contradict the text. The family is multiracial; Dad and the children are brown-skinned, while Mom is pale-skinned.
An impressively understated, respectful exploration of a big change. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780823457182
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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 tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren.
In talk-show host Fallon and illustrator Ordóñez’s latest picture-book collaboration, an elderly pooch waxes rhapsodic about a life well lived.
Observing Papa sitting in his chair watching TV all day, a young pup says, “I’m starting to think…you don’t do ANYTHING.” So Papa proceeds to list his accomplishments, both big and small, mundane and profound. Some are just a result of being older and physically bigger (being tall enough to reach a high shelf and strong enough to open jars); others include winning a race and performing in a band when he was younger. Eventually, the pup realizes that while Papa may have slowed down in his old age, he’s led a full life. The most satisfying thing about Papa’s life now? Watching his grandchild take center stage: “I can say lots of thoughts / but I choose to be quiet. / I’d rather you discover things and then try it.” Fallon’s straightforward text is sweetly upbeat, though it occasionally lacks flow, forcing incongruous situations together to fit the rhyme scheme (“I cook and I mow, / and I once flew a plane. // I play newspaper puzzles because it’s good for my brain”). Featuring uncluttered, colorful backgrounds, Ordóñez’s child-friendly digital art at times takes on sepia tones, evoking the sense of looking back at old photos or memories. Though the creators tread familiar ground, the love between Papa and his little one is palpable.
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781250393975
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
