An uplifting, eye-filling adventure encouraging children to realize their innate creativity and individuality.
Faced with a blank canvas, a young girl finds her creative spirit in Brehm’s unusual picture book.
Emerging from a dark forest, a sickle moon overhead, a young girl enters “a whispery house / At the edge of the wild,” where mysterious “Old Master Paint” awaits her in a cape of luminous, swirling colors. Too tongue-tied and uncertain to say her name, the girl is given a bucket and a brush and led down strange hallways and upstairs to a room dominated by an enormous, white canvas—hers to paint, she is told. After a tentative, disappointing first effort, the little girl’s anger and self-doubt—in the form of trolls, wolves, and her alter ego—threaten to get the better of her until she realizes that she is in control. It is her own life the girl is painting, and she can choose to “Dream large! Grab on! / You’re just getting started, / Such adventures to come!” The offbeat cadence of inspirational, rhyming, and almost-rhyming text winds through dreamlike images by award-winning Brazilian author/illustrator Coelho. Shadowed rooms (odd angles and haunting details), rich abstractions of patterns and color, and showers of light reflect the little girl’s initial hesitation to claim her place in the world and her subsequent, celebratory sense of self-discovery.
An uplifting, eye-filling adventure encouraging children to realize their innate creativity and individuality.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-64999-718-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: BeeZeus Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn.
A young owl achieves his grand ambition.
Owl, an adorably earnest and gallant little owlet, dreams of being a knight. He imagines himself defeating dragons and winning favor far and wide through his brave exploits. When a record number of knights go missing, Owl applies to Knight School and is surprisingly accepted. He is much smaller than the other knights-in-training, struggles to wield weapons, and has “a habit of nodding off during the day.” Nevertheless, he graduates and is assigned to the Knight Night Watch. While patrolling the castle walls one night, a hungry dragon shows up and Owl must use his wits to avoid meeting a terrible end. The result is both humorous and heartwarming, offering an affirmation of courage and clear thinking no matter one’s size…and demonstrating the power of a midnight snack. The story never directly addresses the question of the missing knights, but it is hinted that they became the dragon’s fodder, leaving readers to question Owl’s decision to befriend the beast. Humor is supplied by the characters’ facial expressions and accented by the fact that Owl is the only animal in his order of big, burly human knights. Denise’s accomplished digital illustrations—many of which are full bleeds—often use a warm sepia palette that evokes a feeling of antiquity, and some spreads feature a pleasing play of chiaroscuro that creates suspense and drama.
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31062-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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