Alluring, wordless enchantment.
Many visual stories play out during the night, between the time that a child falls asleep and then awakens.
This winner of the 2015 Silent Book Contest at the Bologna Book Fair may be wordless, but it overflows with stories. It demands that its viewers take their time going through the pages—and then going through them again. The beginning is simple: a light-skinned child falls asleep as an adult woman reads from a book whose cover sports stylized, anthropomorphic animals cavorting around a bonfire. Over several successive pages, the scene pans steadily outward—as with a wide-lens camera—so viewers see the child’s home situated in an urban neighborhood, and then more and more of that neighborhood. Against a backdrop of a starry sky, windows and rooftops of buildings reveal the child’s caregivers embracing, a nurse and patients in a hospital, an artist at an easel, and much more. As the angle widens, more characters emerge, and the initial stories continue. Art emerges on the easel; a crying baby finally sleeps; creatures resembling the bedtime book’s characters leave the city and paddle away on a long boat whose brilliant orange-and-gold pattern matches the sleeping child’s bedspread. Before the sophisticated, mixed-media artwork returns to the cityscapes, there are several joyous, vividly colored pages showing the creatures celebrating the night and the ensuing daybreak.
Alluring, wordless enchantment. (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6599-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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