Sweet and loving characters can’t quite make up for a lack of plot
King Alice lays down the law when her family is snowbound.
After anointing herself King Alice (“You mean…Queen?” Sir Dad asks; “No! KING!”—but this is not a book about overturning gender norms), the pint-sized monarch decides she and her father will make a book together. With a little nudging from Mom, their story begins with “King Alice the First and the royal brave knights having breakfast.” Chapter 2 continues it with a princess tea party. And so the day goes, with a red-bathrobe–clad Alice moving from activity to activity as her beleaguered father tries to keep up (at one point Alice abruptly begins Chapter 5: “ ‘What happened to chapters 3 and 4…?’ Dad wondered pointlessly”) and her mother takes care of the baby and feeds the family. Cordell gets the aimlessness of a day without structure perfectly as well as the elliptical, arbitrary composition style of a young child in Alice’s writing. Unfortunately, the result is a rather aimless plot, one that seems to place Dad’s frazzlement at its center rather than Alice’s ebullience. Cordell’s characteristically scratchy illustrations depict a happy, mixed-race family (Dad presents white, Mom has brown skin and black hair, and the two children have light-brown skin and black hair) in a comfortably messy house. Alice’s metafictive story appears on faux lined paper and cleverly mirrors the events of the day.
Sweet and loving characters can’t quite make up for a lack of plot . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-04749-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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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