Black Belt Bunny’s salad doesn’t quite come together.
Wham! Bam! Chop! Can Black Belt Bunny pick up a new skill?
Black Belt Bunny is “reeeeeeeeeeally fast,” superstrong, “surprisingly sneaky,” and, in sum, “nothing short of swell.” But when it comes to learning something new—it’s time to learn how to make a salad—Black Belt Bunny is nowhere to be found. What’s wrong? Alas, since Black Belt Bunny does not talk, it’s never entirely clear. In the manner of Deborah Underwood and Claudia Rueda’s Here Comes the Easter Cat (2014) and companions, the story is told entirely through the narrator’s one-sided dialogue with the nonverbal bunny. Fleck’s pencil-and-digital illustrations depict an incredibly emotive Bunny, but Davis’ text only hints at, without quite confirming, Bunny’s central crisis. Readers might guess that this is a won’t-eat-vegetables story, but little Bunny apparently loves salad. The narrator notes that Bunny has never made a salad before, implying it’s a fear of trying new things. Readers, on the other hand, may well wonder why Bunny has to make a salad at all, and thus will have trouble following the narrator’s logic. The text is funniest and most relevant when revealing the narrator’s own fears, but it more often adopts the weirdly effusive praise of an overindulgent adult (“Black Belt Bunny, you continue to amaze me”).
Black Belt Bunny’s salad doesn’t quite come together. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-52-542902-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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
Yes, the Pigeon has to go to school, and so do readers, and this book will surely ease the way.
All the typical worries and excuses kids have about school are filtered through Willems’ hysterical, bus-loving Pigeon.
Told mostly in speech balloons, the bird’s monologue will have kids (and their caregivers) in stitches at Pigeon’s excuses. From already knowing everything (except whatever question readers choose to provide in response to “Go ahead—ask me a question. / Any question!”) to fearing learning too much (“My head might pop off”), Pigeon’s imagination has run wild. Readers familiar with Pigeon will recognize the muted, matte backgrounds that show off the bird’s shenanigans so well. As in previous outings, Willems varies the size of the pigeon on the page to help communicate emotion, the bird teeny small on the double-page spread that illustrates the confession that “I’m… / scared.” And Pigeon’s eight-box rant about all the perils of school (“The unknown stresses me out, dude”) is marvelously followed by the realization (complete with lightbulb thought bubble) that school is the place for students to practice, with experts, all those skills they don’t yet have. But it is the ending that is so Willems, so Pigeon, and so perfect. Pigeon’s last question is “Well, HOW am I supposed to get there, anyway!?!” Readers will readily guess both the answer and Pigeon’s reaction.
Yes, the Pigeon has to go to school, and so do readers, and this book will surely ease the way. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-04645-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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