An unusual, touching adventure involving a book, a library, and a friend.
Two friends experience a prolonged separation in this import from Québec.
Gilbert, a quiet White boy, and Raymond, a “brave, strong and hairy” buffalo who “live[s] in the pages of a book” called Raymond the Buffalo, are “inseparable”—until Gilbert becomes obsessed with dinosaurs and abandons his pal. When Gilbert’s mom accidentally picks up Raymond the Buffalo and mistakenly returns it to the library along with a stack of dinosaur books, the librarian tells her to “just throw [the books] down the chute.” Terrified, Raymond survives the chute but emerges outside his book. Upon realizing his mother’s terrible mistake, Gilbert rushes to the library and becomes “inconsolable” when he learns the librarian has not seen Raymond the Buffalo. Later the librarian discovers Raymond but doesn’t know Gilbert’s name to reunite them. She advises Raymond he may stay in the library until Gilbert returns, but, months later, Raymond learns Gilbert’s moved away. Raymond likes living in the library and, as years pass, becomes friends with the librarian (a White woman named Nicole), but he never forgets Gilbert, hoping they’ll meet again. The large, easy-to-read text and detailed, amusing, perky illustrations track Raymond through his friendship with Gilbert, his harrowing arrival at the library, the painful separation, and his eventual adjustment to a new life. With his wily eyes and endearing grin, plucky Raymond offers a lesson in enduring friendships, old and new.
An unusual, touching adventure involving a book, a library, and a friend. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2617-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 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.
