A charming children’s book with valuable basic dance lessons on every page.
A cricket wants to find her own song and uses the power of imagination in this latest book in the Once Upon a Dance children’s book series.
This ambitious book, geared toward very young readers, once again combines a children’s story and dance guidebook, with lush, detailed, and slightly abstract illustrations taking center stage. The book tells the story of Sora, a cricket who’s alone among others of their kind chirping away—a “cricket orchestra”—as they can’t find their own song to sing. They embark on a fanciful quest to find the imagination that others say they lack. Every time Sora says they can’t imagine something, the character transforms into that thing, whether it’s a songbird chirping and singing or a fish making noise with underwater bubbles. Finally, when a threatening creature tells Sora that trees taste terrible, the cricket says, “I can’t imagine it’s as bad as all that” and turns into a tree. Sora realizes that in order to make the transformations stop, they just need to open their eyes; Sora is then a cricket once again but with a vivid imagination and, finally, a song to sing. It’s a lovely story, with a helpful addition: Ballerina Konora is pictured, in photographs by Dan Lao Photography, doing basic dance moves that help illustrate the action and invite readers to participate. For instance, she lifts her arms to mimic diving in water or stretches her arms and legs to “be” a tree. The movements and noises the ballerina suggests will entice many youngsters to attempt them. The story itself is appealing, although author Herbert’s text seems to play second fiddle to illustrator Partridge’s images. Still, the two create a beautiful world for Sora and their menagerie of friends to live in—and by the time the book is over, readers will probably have come up with some dance moves of their own.
A charming children’s book with valuable basic dance lessons on every page.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781955555609
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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
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