Cozy up with this picture book.
A warm read for the fall.
Phelan’s text is remarkably spare, with just a few precise phrases to knit together a narrative about an adult bear and their seven cubs. Frontmatter shows the grown-up bear clad in a bathrobe and looking out a kitchen window. The palette is dominated by warm red, gold, and brown tones, and the bear’s brief directive to the cubs on the next page suggests an autumnal chill in the air. “Sweaters on!” the bear exclaims to the PJ-clad little ones. A basket of yarn sits off to the side, and on the next spread the big bear is seen sitting and knitting calmly while awaiting the cubs’ descent from upstairs. “Sweaters on?” calls the big bear. “Not yet,” is the reply. After hearing a clatter, the big bear goes upstairs to investigate and finds the cubs struggling to get dressed. Humorous watercolors show their little round bodies packed like sausages into a rainbow array of sweaters—including one sweater with two cubs stuffed inside. The struggle continues for several pages, with the patient grown-up bear attempting to help without much luck. Night has fallen by the time they finally go outside all bundled up, but they make the most of their time there before returning indoors for “Pajamas on!” time. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cozy up with this picture book. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-293414-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Sweet.
A caregiving bear shares with its cub how love has defined their relationship from the first moment and through the years as the cub has grown.
With rhymes and a steady rhythm that are less singsong-y than similar books, Stansbie seems to have hit a sweet spot for this offering on the I-love-you-always shelf. Readers follow the adult and child as they share special moments together—a sunset, a splash in a pond, climbing a tree, a snuggle—and the adult tells the child that the love it feels has only grown. Stansbie also takes care not to put promises in the adult bear’s mouth that can’t be delivered, acknowledging that physical proximity is not always possible: “Wherever you are, / even when we’re apart… // I’ll love you forever / with all of my heart.” The large trim size helps the sweet illustrations shine; their emphasis is on the close relationship between parent and child. Shaped peekaboo windows offer glimpses of preceding and succeeding pages, images and text carefully placed to work whatever the context. While the die cuts on the interior pages will not hold up to rough handling, they do add whimsy and delight to the book as a whole: “And now that you’re bigger, / you make my heart sing. / My / beautiful / wonderful / magical / thing.” Those last three adjectives are positioned in leaf-shaped cutouts, the turn of the page revealing the roly-poly cub in a pile of leaves, three formed by the die-cuts. Opposite, three vignettes show the cub appreciating the “beautiful,” the “wonderful,” and the “magical.”
Sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68412-910-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Dolphin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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