Dieckmann beautifully weaves together some of today’s most difficult themes into a deceptively simple tale.
A lost polar bear strikes fear into the woodland animals until his extraordinary efforts to return home bring help, hope, and understanding.
A lone figure, balanced on a miniscule shard of ice, floats toward land under a moonlit sky. It covers itself in leaves and finds shelter in an old, abandoned cave, while the native animals watch and discuss, scared of the unknown. Every day they gossip, naming him Leaf, but none talk to the mysterious creature until Leaf attempts to fly home. The crows rescue him, and the animals promise to tell Leaf’s story, so no polar bear will “ever get lost again.” The illustrations, done in pencil, pen, wash, and paint with collage, are infused with a European folk-art aesthetic. Dieckmann plays with scale and proportion for dramatic and psychological effect. Grand spreads contrasting the mountains and sea offer a wide, dreamlike sensibility, whereas the portrait of Leaf in his cave brings forth the bear’s emotional isolation. Skilled linework provides depth and detailed information; and the artist’s appealing patterning acts almost like hieroglyphs, with the green plants and vibrant flowers indicating a foreign world to the bear, compared to the blue environment of his home. A timely story, one that yields multiple interpretations and meanings, from the “othering” of unfamiliar populations and those seeking refuge from a changing world to the impacts of climate change.
Dieckmann beautifully weaves together some of today’s most difficult themes into a deceptively simple tale. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-911171-31-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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