A welcome, if slightly uneven, addition to the growing canon of children’s books about emotional literacy.
This German import reminds children that feelings, as well as some physical impulses, are universal.
The illustrations, which appear screen-printed, depict individualized children of various ethnicities and racial presentations in different settings. Their varied skin tones are rendered in deeply saturated colors and include realistic shades, such as beige and brown, but also stylized ones, such as blue, orange, mossy green, and literal black. The verso of each spread begins with “Everybody,” the remainder of the text exploring various feelings and physical states of being. Everybody feels happiness, fear, ennui, loneliness, anger, and more. Everybody plays, eats, sleeps, “gets hurt sometimes,” and dreams. In one spread, readers observe that “everybody pees,” some while standing and some while sitting down, and the book doesn’t shy from depicting children relieving themselves in various positions. The spread about sorrow verges on reductive. It states: “Just remember that the sadness will pass and you will be happy again,” even if it’s not always that simple for children, or perhaps some adults in their lives, suffering from severe depression. That aside, the book is an inclusive and generous reminder to children that everyone experiences intense feelings, which may help some readers feel less isolated or even, in some cases, reduce their anxiety. Unfortunately, there’s a glaring grammar error toward the book’s close (“The thought of some treats can make some mouth’s water”).
A welcome, if slightly uneven, addition to the growing canon of children’s books about emotional literacy. (Picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-3-89955-855-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Gestalten
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it.
Former National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman invites girls to raise their voices and make a difference.
“Today, we finally have a say,” proclaims the first-person plural narration as three girls (one presents Black, another is brown-skinned, and the third is light-skinned) pass one another marshmallows on a stick around a campfire. In Wise’s textured, almost three-dimensional illustrations, the trio traverse fantastical, often abstract landscapes, playing, demonstrating, eating, and even flying, while confident rhymes sing their praises and celebrate collective female victories. The phrase “LIBERATION. FREEDOM. RESPECT” appears on a protest sign that bookends their journey. Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world. Sometimes family members or other diverse comrades surround the girls, emphasizing that power comes from community. Gorman is careful to specify that “some of us go by she / And some of us go by they.” She affirms, too, that each person is “a different shape and size,” though the art doesn’t show much variation in body type. Characters also vary in ability. Real-life figures emerge as the girls dream of past luminaries such as author Octavia Butler and activist Marsha P. Johnson, along with present-day role models including poet and journalist Plestia Alaqad and athlete Sha’carri Richardson; silhouettes stand in for heroines as yet unknown. Imagining that “we are where change is going” is hopeful indeed.
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593624180
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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