A vibrant tribute to a beloved Filipino home.
Yelena Mendoza’s family has a very special member: the home they live in.
Yelena and her baby brother, Marco, are awakened by a falling palm tree and a creak from the bamboo floor. She opens the window and sees her father working outside. “Magandang umaga!” Papa, who uses a prosthetic leg, greets her in Tagalog before reminding Yelena to check on the other member of the family: their nipa hut, a traditional Filipino woven house built on stilts. She carefully looks over the house for cracks that require repair, whispering, “I’ll take care of you, and you will take care of us.” Bamboo is falling from the house, so she and Papa gather materials to work on the hut. But a storm is coming. Papa rushes to prepare the hut, and the Mendozas take shelter within. Once the weather clears, they survey the damaged roof and missing shutter. Still the family expresses their gratitude for the hut’s protection: “We take care of family,” Papa says. “And that is why the nipa hut is still standing.” Vivid textures and hues depict the various huts in Yelena’s neighborhood. Onomatopoeia (“CRAAAACCKK!” “CLAP!” “BAM!”) is effectively employed during the storm, interrupting the evenly paced story. Larios anthropomorphizes the expressive hut, which flinches and even appears to weep in the rain. A detailed guide to nipa huts and the effects of global warming follows.
A vibrant tribute to a beloved Filipino home. (overview of the Philippines, map, glossary of Tagalog terms, photo, author’s and illustrator’s notes) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781646865000
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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