Heart-warming to smile-inducing to giggle-generating, this book gives parents and children of most types something to relate...
What are parents actually good for?
“Sometimes you think that your mom and your dad / are just there to nag you and boss you like mad. / Brush your teeth! / Get a move on! / Say thank you! / Say please! / Tidy up! / No more sweets! / Wash your hands! / Eat your peas!” But it turns out parents are handy for quite a lot of other things, like mending toys and acting as foundations for sand castles. They’re good for warming hands on cold days and disposing of bits of food you don’t want to eat. “Parents are towels for / wiping your grime on. / They’re whirlers and twirlers / and tree trunks to climb on.” But when they have sorted out all your problems…you better watch out, since parents love tickles! Bently’s rhythmic text offers gentle reminders to young listeners of all the small, helpful things parents do. Ogilvie’s mixed-media illustrations are a perfect match, extending and augmenting the humor. Parents of every ethnicity, size and shape as well as both genders are squirted with ketchup and hoses, act as horses and donkeys, and, of course, give good tickles. While it is wonderful to see dark-skinned parents as well as a dad in a turban, the absence of obvious same-sex parents is a missed opportunity.
Heart-warming to smile-inducing to giggle-generating, this book gives parents and children of most types something to relate to. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4814-1483-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
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
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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