A “stupendiferous, cosmically colossal” good time for all.
Working to recruit a walrus as a playmate, a small boy living near the ocean serendipitously discovers a new friend.
When young Wendell spies a walrus-shaped cloud, he imagines having a real walrus named Roger. They would tell jokes, ride bikes, climb trees, build forts, fly kites, draw, and “have the most stupendiferous, cosmically colossal best time of their lives.” After a trip to Uncle Zed’s Pet Emporium fails to produce a walrus, Wendell resorts to tossing a bottle with his personal invitation to a walrus into the ocean. On an adjoining cliff, Wendell notices a boy named Morrell tossing his own letter to a whale into the waves. Waiting by the ocean, Wendell and Morrell eventually decide “to pass the time together,” eventually doing everything they’d imagined doing with a walrus and a whale. Sprightly, lighthearted illustrations capture Wendell’s infectious energy and enthusiasm in loose pencil outlines against pale, expansive watercolor washes denoting hillsides, ocean, and sky. Humorous vignettes of the ever optimistic Wendell playing with an imaginary Roger, oblivious to the impracticalities of a walrus biking, tree-climbing, fort-building, kite-flying, or drawing, prove highly amusing, while scenes of Wendell, too absorbed in his walrus quest to notice Morrell’s parallel whale hunt, suggest the upbeat finale. Wendell has red hair and pale skin; Morrell has tightly curled black hair and brown skin.
A “stupendiferous, cosmically colossal” good time for all. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62779-602-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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
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