A hip adaptation of a beloved story.
In this fairy-tale retelling, a Black, red-cloaked fashionista makes her way through the woods to her grandmother’s house.
Purple-curled Mahogany loves sewing and listening to music. As the book opens, Mahogany shows off the fruits of her labor: a gorgeous red patchwork cape. Momma asks her to take some honey cornbread to G-Ma but warns her to stay alert, and Mahogany sets out…with loud music from her smartphone blaring. As the distracted child stops to pick a bouquet of lavender, a sly wolf, who’s been lurking, introduces himself. Mahogany tells him she’s on her way to G-Ma’s. He asks about the cornbread, and a frightened Mahogany hands it over—before tossing her cape over his head and fleeing. The story generally stays true to the main plot points of the original story, with some clever changes that will satisfy modern sensibilities (no animals are harmed in this retelling). Mahogany eventually uses her wits and her sewing prowess to save the day, while it’s G-Ma who delivers well-known lines such as “What big eyes you’ve got.” This new version is still a morality tale about being aware of one’s surroundings and not talking to strangers, but with a fun, tech-y twist. Human characters present Black, and Brown-Wood gently folds an empowering message about brown skin into her text (“sunlight that kissed the melanin deep in [Mahogany’s] dark skin”). Joven’s cartoonish characters inhabit an enticing, beautifully textured world.
A hip adaptation of a beloved story. (Picture book/folktale. 4-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781623543679
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, if oft-told, story.
A plush toy rabbit bonds with a boy and watches him grow into adulthood.
The boy receives the blue bunny for his birthday and immediately becomes attached to it. Unbeknownst to him, the ungendered bunny is sentient; it engages in dialogue with fellow toys, giving readers insight into its thoughts. The bunny's goal is to have grand adventures when the boy grows up and no longer needs its company. The boy spends many years playing imaginatively with the bunny, holding it close during both joyous and sorrowful times and taking it along on family trips. As a young man, he marries, starts a family, and hands over the beloved toy to his toddler-aged child in a crib. The bunny's epiphany—that he does not need to wait for great adventures since all his dreams have already come true in the boy's company—is explicitly stated in the lengthy text, which is in many ways similar to The Velveteen Rabbit (1922). The illustrations, which look hand-painted but were digitally created, are moderately sentimental with an impressionistic dreaminess (one illustration even includes a bunny-shaped cloud in the sky) and a warm glow throughout. The depiction of a teenage male openly displaying his emotions—hugging his beloved childhood toy for example—is refreshing. All human characters present as White expect for one of the boy’s friends who is Black.
A sweet, if oft-told, story. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72825-448-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
