This will have many children looking for meaning all around them.
A child’s transition to literacy is celebrated in this Brazilian import.
Little Pedro is an observant boy. Surrounded by “all kinds of posters, billboards, and signs,” he can understand most of the pictures, but others make no sense to him, “like the little signs on each street corner.” His mom explains that it’s the name of the street, but he sees just “a bunch of drawings,” represented as serpentine scribbles in the illustrations. One day, his mother tells him he will start school, where he will begin to “understand…the letters and numbers you are always asking about.” On the first day, Pedro’s teacher introduces her students to the letter A, and suddenly he sees “that the signs, billboards, and shop windows all had his teacher’s A.” Now, among the scribbles on the signs, Matoso places clearly distinguishable A’s. Each day, with each new letter, “the miracle continued to happen” until Pedro is reading, and letters completely replace the scribbles. Rocha’s text is marvelously child-centered, never leaving Pedro’s perspective and realistically evoking the way letter acquisition turns nonsense into sense for most children. Matoso’s striking, posterlike illustrations use a limited palette of, mostly, red, pink, blue, black, and olive, allowing figures and patterns to occasionally merge with negative space, visually reinforcing the mental gymnastics involved in deciphering letters, her awareness of environmental print as keen as Pedro’s.
This will have many children looking for meaning all around them. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59270-208-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.
A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.
The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665954761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Formulaic fare that will nevertheless charm devoted followers.
A few familiar friends explore gratitude.
Daywalt’s crayons have observed many holidays, from Christmas to Earth Day. On Thanksgiving, these anthropomorphic school supplies wax (pun intended) poetic about their favorite things to draw. “Blue is thankful for blueberries.” (The accompanying illustration depicts the stubby crayon leaping into a pile of the fruit.) Black, on a page topped by dark scribbles, “is thankful for night skies.” In an aside, Black adds, “Big, beautiful night skies I get to color in all by myself!” (Blue is perfectly fine with this.) Pink pipes up with “Three glorious words. Amazon. River. Dolphins”—which may spur readers to research these creatures. The tale turns a bit meta, too. Teal is thankful for family—both Blue and Green. Red, surrounded by hearts, is thankful for Neon Green Highlighter, who was accidentally dropped into the crayon box—a “dreamboat” for sure. Recognizable jokes from previous works make appearances; these callbacks will delight staunch fans, though others will find them tiring. Standard cheer and platitudes abound; the crayons are ultimately most grateful for each other.
Formulaic fare that will nevertheless charm devoted followers. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593690574
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
