Simply gorgeous illustrations adorn a poetic boy-and-his-dad story. Jake’s Daddy wakes him just before dawn, as he’s curled up in his sleeping bag next to the campfire Daddy’s tending. Jake is not sure he’s ready, but Daddy thinks he is. He tries once (too hard) and once more (too soft) but then Jake is whistling softly as little creatures watch. The birds begin to sing, the last star winks out, and Daddy joins Jake in whistling, as the sun comes up. “We whistled up the sun.” This tender story of a family ritual unfolds to the full-page images from Hines, who makes her pictures in quilts. Every single piece of fabric is perfect, from the hand-painted sky fabrics to the rough-textured plaids of Jake and Daddy’s shirts. Her shapes, forms, and patterns are elegantly chosen and pieced seamlessly to make pictures that richly repay repeated examination. She supplies a fascinating two pages of detailed description as to how she made the illustrations. Children will be entranced by the unaffected sweetness and gentle rhythms of both story and pictures and their magical sense of family love and devotion to the natural world. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-050235-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators.
Existing artwork from an artistic giant inspires a fairy-tale reimagination by a master of the horror genre.
In King’s interpretation of a classic Brothers Grimm story, which accompanies set and costume designs that the late Sendak created for a 1997 production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, siblings Hansel and Gretel survive abandonment in the woods and an evil witch’s plot to gobble them up before finding their “happily ever after” alongside their father. Prose with the reassuring cadence of an old-timey tale, paired with Sendak’s instantly recognizable artwork, will lull readers before capitalizing on these creators’ knack for injecting darkness into seemingly safe spaces. Gaping faces loom in crevices of rocks and trees, and a gloomy palette of muted greens and ocher amplify the story’s foreboding tone, while King never sugarcoats the peach-skinned children’s peril. Branches with “clutching fingers” hide “the awful enchanted house” of a “child-stealing witch,” all portrayed in an eclectic mix of spot and full-bleed images. Featuring insults that might strike some as harsh (“idiot,” “fool”), the lengthy, dense text may try young readers’ patience, and the often overwhelmingly ominous mood feels more pitched to adults—particularly those familiar with King and Sendak—but an introduction acknowledges grandparents as a likely audience, and nostalgia may prompt leniency over an occasional disconnect between words and art.
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780062644695
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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