A moving, grooving snapshot of urban life where kids create the fun and beckon everybody in.
A high-energy ode to double Dutch and summer days of fun.
It’s a sizzling morning, and when one freckle-faced, curly-haired, tan-skinned kid yells, “Jump in!” kids of every hue and size come running with balls, with jump-ropes, and with arms and legs ready for moving. When the “Double Dutch divas,” the Delancy twins, arrive to jump-rope, their long cornrows go flying as they “Jump over, jump under” and “spin ’round.” Next, long-legged basketballer Leroy Jones, with a frohawk and fiery moves, twirls a ball on one finger then jumps in with hip-hop acrobatics…until hip-swinging Ms. Mabel tosses Leroy her purse and exhausts the jump-rope turners with her “funky wiggle” and her cartwheel in the ropes. Lots of neighbors, including the reverend, join in, and the jumping joy permeates the day as Strickland’s free-verse poetry turns this tale into a singable jump-rope rhyme. When a skateboard-loving youngster finally joins in after homework’s all done, the child takes their dog and board into the ropes. Strickland’s innovative low-angle and bird’s-eye views and gatefolds that open in various directions give readers expansive vantage points for this day of participatory play, while her colorful and highly textured digitally rendered illustrations, inspired by the Italian futurists, effectively capture the heat, verve, and energy of the city. This city community is a diverse one; most of the named characters present as Black.
A moving, grooving snapshot of urban life where kids create the fun and beckon everybody in. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-61963-580-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 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.
