A luminous picture book that exudes joy as it celebrates the freedom to be the one and only you.
A kaleidoscopic tribute to fashionistas of all colors, shapes, sizes, and ages.
Clarke creates a runway of fashion-loving folks of various skin tones who rock their styles with verve and vitality alongside verse that rolls off the tongue and delights the ear. The characters’ lack of facial features invites readers to imagine who might be wearing each outfit (and how they feel) and suggests that anyone of any background can embrace their bodies as a canvas on which to write their own artistic story. When the narrator chimes: “Be your / BOLD-BIG-SELF, / brave in bright brilliant blue hair: deliciously different, dramatic and daring,” a brown-faced individual with textured, electric blue hair appears in silhouette. Some of the images clearly represent children, like a skirt made of flowers above a pair of brown legs with feet shod in frilly socks and ruby sequined Mary Janes. Others portray more seasoned individuals, like the two elderly, dark-skinned people using canes and wearing neckties, dress shirts, and fedoras with colors that echo the patterns in their clothes. Although the bold-colored backgrounds change from page to page, their singular color makes Clarke’s amazing, unique mixed-media collage illustrations of people—“CHIC-A-BOOM! CHIC-A-BAM!”—pop and announce their presence. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A luminous picture book that exudes joy as it celebrates the freedom to be the one and only you. (Picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2377-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned.
All the reasons why a daughter needs a mother.
Each spread features an adorable cartoon animal parent-child pair on the recto opposite a rhyming verse: “I’ll always support you in giving your all / in every endeavor, the big and the small, / and be there to catch you in case you should fall. / I hope you believe this is true.” A virtually identical book, Why a Daughter Needs a Dad, publishes simultaneously. Both address standing up for yourself and your values, laughing to ease troubles, being thankful, valuing friendship, persevering and dreaming big, being truthful, thinking through decisions, and being open to differences, among other topics. Though the sentiments/life lessons here and in the companion title are heartfelt and important, there are much better ways to deliver them. These books are likely to go right over children’s heads and developmental levels (especially with the rather advanced vocabulary); their parents are the more likely audience, and for them, the books provide some coaching in what kids need to hear. The two books are largely interchangeable, especially since there are so few references to mom or dad, but one spread in each book reverts to stereotype: Dad balances the two-wheeler, and mom helps with clothing and hair styles. Since the books are separate, it aids in customization for many families.
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned. (Picture book. 4-8, adult)Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6781-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that.
Beatrice Zinker is a kinder, gentler Judy Moody.
Beatrice doesn’t want to be fit in a box. Her first word was “WOW,” not “Mom.” She does her best thinking upside down and prefers to dress like a ninja. Like Judy Moody, she has patient parents and a somewhat annoying younger brother. (She also has a perfectly ordinary older sister.) Beatrice spends all summer planning a top-secret spy operation complete with secret codes and a secret language (pig Latin). But on the first day of third grade, her best friend, Lenny (short for Eleanor), shows up in a dress, with a new friend who wants to play veterinarian at recess. Beatrice, essentially a kind if somewhat quirky kid, struggles to see the upside of the situation and ends up with two friends instead of one. Line drawings on almost every spread add to the humor and make the book accessible to readers who might otherwise balk at its 160 pages. Thankfully, the rhymes in the text do not continue past the first chapter. Children will enjoy the frequent puns and Beatrice’s preference for climbing trees and hanging upside down. The story drifts dangerously close to pedantry when Beatrice asks for advice from a grandmotherly neighbor but is saved by likable characters and upside-down cake. Beatrice seems to be white; Lenny’s surname, Santos, suggests that she may be Latina; their school is a diverse one.
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that. (Fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-6738-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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