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LOOK, IT'S RAINING

Name: LOOK, IT'S RAINING
Author: Mathieu Pierloot
ISBN: 978-1-61689-828-1

by Mathieu Pierloot ; illustrated by Maria Dek ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2019

A worthy theme of noticing the “show” of nature receives an uninspired illustrative treatment.

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A young girl discovers the fascination of nature.

Camille is bored one rainy Sunday and decides to go outside. There she communes with the raindrops, sticking out her tongue (“the rain tastes like dust, like clouds”), and “shivers with happiness” when the thunder comes. She talks to the ants, who tell her they are “going to a show.” Camille naturally wonders what the show is, but the story doesn’t go there directly. Instead, Camille cavorts. (Young readers will notice here that the illustrations do not sync with the text, which reads that she ‘“runs her hands through the tall, wet grass” whose “strands tickle her palms,” while the illustration shows Camille stretching on a brick wall and then splashing in a puddle.) When she spies a spider on a rose bush, weaving a web, she, too, mentions the show. Again, Camille wonders what the show is but, again, doesn’t go looking. While pondering a big tree, she inadvertently comes upon the show—a chrysalis opening. While the somewhat-scattered text doesn’t follow a strong story arc, its meandering does underscore the whimsy of an unplanned walk in the rain. However, Dek’s illustrations—rendered in watercolor (but so opaque as to look like gouache)—dampen rather than uplift. Their clunky, ponderous style just doesn’t appropriately complement a story about the evanescence, transformation, and luminosity of nature. All humans shown are white.

A worthy theme of noticing the “show” of nature receives an uninspired illustrative treatment. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-61689-828-1

Page Count: 44

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)