Stunning, poetic, and playful, this one is a delight for all ages.
A joint introduction to fine art and the importance of sleep.
This exquisite board book will retain its visual value forever—certainly long after children have moved on beyond the format. That said, the simple concepts in this book are conveyed with an elegance, wonder, and joy that complement the artwork perfectly. The book is separated into five thematic sections, each introduced in bold on a bright, monochromatic page with a simple statement or phrase: “Everyone sleeps”; “You need to sleep...”; “If you don’t sleep enough, you may feel...”; “It’s bedtime when...”; and “Dream!” Works reflecting each of these themes follow, as the text amplifies or completes the thought. The consequences of lack of sleep are portrayed by, among others, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, Picasso’s Weeping Woman, and Matisse’s Still Life With Sleeping Woman, which is accompanied by the warning, “But don’t fall asleep in your food!” Other featured artists include, among others, Hiroshige, Takashi Murakami, Diego Rivera, Georgia O’Keefe, Winslow Homer, Jordan Casteel, David Hockney, Keith Haring, Horace Pippen, and Paola Pivi (represented by an installation of life-size, neon, stuffed bears). The portraits included reflect a mix of races, primarily white and black, with one Latinx mother and child and one Asian child.
Stunning, poetic, and playful, this one is a delight for all ages. (Board book. 2-8)Pub Date: May 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7148-7865-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Phaidon
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Genial starter nonfiction.
Panels activated by sliding tabs introduce youngsters to the human body.
The information is presented in matter-of-fact narration and captioned, graphically simple art featuring rounded lines, oversized heads and eyes, and muted colors. The sliding panels reveal new scenes on both sides of the page, and arrows on the large tabs indicate the direction to pull them (some tabs work left and right and others up and down). Some of the tabs show only slight changes (a white child reaches for a teddy bear, demonstrating how arms and hands work), while others are much more surprising (a different white child runs to a door and on the other side of the panel is shown sitting on the toilet). The double-page spreads employ broad themes as organizers, such as “Your Body,” “Eating Right,” and “Taking Care of Your Body.” Much of the content is focused on the outside of the body, but one panel does slide to reveal an X-ray image of a skeleton. While there are a few dark brown and amber skin tones, it is mostly white children who appear in the pages to demonstrate body movements, self-care, visiting the doctor, senses, and feelings. The companion volume, Baby Animals, employs the same style of sliding panels to introduce youngsters to little critters and their parents, from baboons to penguins.
Genial starter nonfiction. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-2-40800-850-5
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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