A beautifully illustrated children’s poem about the joys of reading.
A young girl travels to an isle of stories in Magistro’s debut picture book with illustrations by Feagan.
After dawn, a nameless child with olive skin, brown eyes, and long, wavy brown hair sets sail to an island composed of books. There, a sea wolf announces that it’s safe for all the other animals to come out, including grizzly bears, eagles, whales, elk, foxes, and salmon. They gather for a reading by a fox who encourages them to “Breathe in. Breathe out. Listen well.” The tale, told in short, rhyming proverbs from a poetic second-person perspective, is immersive. However, some readers may wish for a more well-defined plot. After the many vivid animal descriptions (“An eagle lands, a humpback waves”), not much happens on Read Island—but perhaps that’s Magistro’s point. Feagan’s winning, joyful illustrations, which use pleasing, delicate color palettes, make up for the lack of a strong storyline. One of the images—a fantastical, dynamic rainbow, featuring mermaids, gryphons, astronauts, and dragons—effectively captures the feeling of reading something really special for the first time. In the end, Magistro clarifies her point about the safe space that reading creates: “This world of stories, safe and true, / Is always here to welcome you.”
A beautifully illustrated children’s poem about the joys of reading.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73-652330-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off.
This rocket hopes to take its readers on a birthday blast—but there may or may not be enough fuel.
Once a year, a one-seat rocket shoots out from Earth. Why? To reveal a special congratulatory banner for a once-a-year event. The second-person narration puts readers in the pilot’s seat and, through a (mostly) ballad-stanza rhyme scheme (abcb), sends them on a journey toward the sun, past meteors, and into the Kuiper belt. The final pages include additional information on how birthdays are measured against the Earth’s rotations around the sun. Collingridge aims for the stars with this title, and he mostly succeeds. The rhyme scheme flows smoothly, which will make listeners happy, but the illustrations (possibly a combination of paint with digital enhancements) may leave the viewers feeling a little cold. The pilot is seen only with a 1960s-style fishbowl helmet that completely obscures the face, gender, and race by reflecting the interior of the rocket ship. This may allow readers/listeners to picture themselves in the role, but it also may divest them of any emotional connection to the story. The last pages—the backside of a triple-gatefold spread—label the planets and include Pluto. While Pluto is correctly labeled as a dwarf planet, it’s an unusual choice to include it but not the other dwarfs: Ceres, Eris, etc. The illustration also neglects to include the asteroid belt or any of the solar system’s moons.
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18949-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: David Fickling/Phoenix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
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