Eye-catching though it is, it is unlikely to displace more traditional, warmer offerings on this subject.
Inspired by a photograph showing a family of three, the man wearing horizontal stripes, the woman vertical, and the child a checkered shirt, this whimsical debut picture book challenges the limits of ultradesigned books for children.
The characteristics and preferences of the pinheaded protagonists are illustrated in bold geometric black and white on strong, flat background colors. Mister Horizontal, predictably, loves the smooth, gliding motions of rollerblading and sailing. Miss Vertical prefers dizzying aerial adventures; she “loves launching herself into orbit and looping through the air.” Mister Horizontal likes to bend and stretch, (which action confusingly causes his stripes to be vertical on the page.) Miss Vertical, the thrill seeker, loves high-wire acrobatics, elevators, bungee jumping, rockets, skyscrapers and balloons. Mister Horizontal, more down-to-earth, prefers the desert, the ocean, ants marching in straight lines, lounging, napping and gardening. The book’s ulterior motive is suddenly revealed at the end, in a question: “Now what do you think… / …their child will love?” And there is their child, wearing a checkered shirt, just like the boy in a closing photo. Witty, clever, elegantly designed but certainly not touchy-feely, this book is a somewhat strained synthesis of graphic illustration, seemingly designed to teach the concept of orientation in conjunction with an analysis of personality traits.
Eye-catching though it is, it is unlikely to displace more traditional, warmer offerings on this subject. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59270-161-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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