This quietly powerful family story encourages children to use both voices and hands to advocate for change.
Activism comes in many forms.
Lubaya prefers sitting quietly to speaking up in class, even when she knows the answer. She’s often picked last for soccer, but she doesn’t mind because before the game ends, Lubaya has wandered off, absorbed in daydreaming. This might be the story of a neurodivergent child, or Lubaya might just be introverted and introspective. She plays well with her brother, Jelani, but even he cannot hold her attention through a video game. One thing Lubaya spends time on, though, is creating artwork on the back sides of her family’s protest signs, saved from a march and bearing messages like “We Are One Earth” and “Peace.” When alarming events air on the TV news, Lubaya’s parents hold her and Jelani close and tell them it’s time to march again, giving Lubaya’s posters a second life. At the march, Lubaya—whose Swahili name means “young lioness” according to a closing note—adds her voice and her artwork to the protest, amplifying the power of the marchers’ messages with her hand-drawn images. Williamson’s textured illustrations, created in oil paint and crayon, feature bright colors and vibrant backgrounds and represent well the visible diversity of people of color, even for members of the same family. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-21-inch double-page spreads viewed at 27.6% of actual size.)
This quietly powerful family story encourages children to use both voices and hands to advocate for change. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-55555-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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