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WHAT FEELINGS DO WHEN NO ONE’S LOOKING

Name: WHAT FEELINGS DO WHEN NO ONE’S LOOKING
Author: Tina Oziewicz
ISBN: 978-1-953861-28-3

by Tina Oziewicz ; illustrated by Aleksandra Zając ; translated by Jennifer Croft ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2022

A nuanced, ruminative alternative to the general run of more limited, toddler-aimed emotional palettes.

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In this Polish import, emotions take on physical form to express their various natures.

Designed not so much to evoke feelings as to quiet them, the sparely detailed gray or pale-hued drawings and even sparer text create soothing visual and verbal rhythms as pages turn. Beginning with Curiosity, who “always climbs as high as possible—to the treetop, the roof, or the chimney,” 31 emotions, depicted mostly as rotund, furry creatures with small ears and expressive faces, engage in some telling activity described in a brief sentence or two. Some connections aren’t always obvious (readers may puzzle over “Love is an electrician,” for instance, opposite a figure steadying an outsized light bulb), but most are clear, such as “Calm pets a dog,” “Insecurities build cages,” and “Anxiety juggles.” (Zając effectively sharpens this last by putting the beleaguered juggler atop a wobbly unicycle.) Overall there is a subdued, even benign tone to the recitation that not even Hate, presented as a scowling beast chewing through “links and cables” to prevent others from communicating, and porcupinelike Anger, bellowing across two pages, can interrupt. In the final lines Oziewicz properly shrugs off all the personification to ask, “And where does all this live?” and answer: “In us.” A shadowy image in a mirror offers a friendly wave in the final image. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A nuanced, ruminative alternative to the general run of more limited, toddler-aimed emotional palettes. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 19, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-953861-28-3

Page Count: 74

Publisher: Elsewhere Editions

Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781728271170

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

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Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)