by Robin McKinley & illustrated by Martine Gourbault ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 1992
A popular novelist (The Hero and the Crown, 1985 Newbery Award) makes her picture-book debut with a perceptive glimpse of an experience that has the autobiographical feel of Yolen's All the Secrets of the World (1991). Sara, the small narrator, is constantly aware of her father's existence—she looks at his picture, hears her mother read his letters, tells her friends about him. But she doesn't remember him, and when his ship finally sails in, she's filled with reserve—until he picks her up and her arms go around his neck: "And then I remembered my father." In soft color-pencil art, Gourbault depicts an appealingly orderly world at a generalized time not too long ago, imparting energy with perspectives skewed Zelinsky-style and showing the relationship between parents and child with unusual tenderness. An attractive vignette. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: April 14, 1992
ISBN: 0-688-10639-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1992
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by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Sandra Equihua ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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adapted by Hannah Eliot ; illustrated by Nivea Ortiz
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova
by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan
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by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova
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by Chloe Perkins ; illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan
by Laura Deal ; illustrated by Tamara Campeau ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019
A tender bedtime tale set in a too-seldom-seen northern world.
A quiet book for putting young children to bed in a state of snowy wonder.
The magic of the north comes alive in a picture book featuring Inuit characters. In the sky at nighttime, snow falls fast. / … / In the sky at nighttime, a raven roosts atop a tall building. / … / In the sky at nighttime, a mother’s delicate song to her child arises like a gentle breeze.” With the repetition of the simple, titular refrain, the author envisions what happens in a small town at night: Young children see their breath in the cold; a hunter returns on his snowmobile; the stars dazzle in the night sky. A young mother rocks her baby to sleep with a song and puts the tot down with a trio of stuffed animals: hare, polar bear, seal. The picture book evokes a feeling of peace as the street lamps, northern lights, and moon illuminate the snow. The illustrations are noteworthy for the way they meld the old world with what it looks like to be a modern Indigenous person: A sled dog and fur-lined parkas combine easily with the frame houses, a pickup truck, power lines, and mobile-hung crib. By introducing Indigenous characters in an unremarkably familiar setting, the book reaches children who don’t always see themselves in an everyday context.
A tender bedtime tale set in a too-seldom-seen northern world. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77227-238-3
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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by Laura Deal ; illustrated by Emma Pedersen
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by Laura Deal ; illustrated by Charlene Chua
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