Nature and art intertwine in this multifaceted homage to the beauty and creativity that surrounds and resides within each of...
A child narrator, created from cut paper and paints, introduces readers to the beauty of life’s “forest,” both figuratively and literally.
From the balcony of a high-rise apartment, the child can see the top of the urban forest nearby. However, there’s also an indoor forest, one made of the child’s own artwork depicting all the wondrous things found in nature. A double-page spread that reads “My forest is crispy…and soft” depicts the child scuffing through fall leaves and gazing at a mossy spot in borderless horizontal panels on verso, while on recto those leaves are taped into collage images and replicated with sponge paints in corresponding panels. The child’s forest has many facets: It is “tall,” it is “short”; it is “fluffy…prickly [and] rough.” Every page introduces many characteristics that define the child’s world, and each is paired with both encounters with flora and fauna and creative use of varying art media to capture their essence. Colorful multimedia spreads convey the joy of discovery and model the different ways art can be used to express colors, textures, and feelings. Simple text offering a plethora of adjectives, some surprising (“dangling yellow, tiptoe gray, peekaboo purple”), and illustrations that are simultaneously complex and accessible make this a book to enjoy on many levels. The child has beige skin and straight, black hair, as do mom and a baby sibling.
Nature and art intertwine in this multifaceted homage to the beauty and creativity that surrounds and resides within each of us . (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77138-930-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated.
Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault’s classic alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets the Halloween treatment.
Chung follows the original formula to the letter. In alphabetical order, each letter climbs to the top of a tree. They are knocked back to the ground in a jumble before climbing up in sequence again. In homage to the spooky holiday theme, they scale a “creaky old tree,” and a ghostly jump scare causes the pileup. The chunky, colorful art is instantly recognizable. The charmingly costumed letters (“H swings a tail. / I wears a patch. J and K don / bows that don’t match”) are set against a dark backdrop, framed by pages with orange or purple borders. The spreads feature spiderwebs and jack-o’-lanterns. The familiar rhyme cadence is marred by the occasional clunky or awkward phrase; in particular, the adapted refrain of “Chicka chicka tricka treat” offers tongue-twisting fun, but it’s repeatedly followed by the disappointing half-rhyme “Everybody sneaka sneak.” Even this odd construction feels shoehorned into place, since “sneaking” makes little sense when every character in the book is climbing together. The final line of the book ends on a more satisfying note, with “Everybody—time to eat!”
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665954785
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
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