A rousing, artistic celebration of childhood that should appeal to readers of all ages.
A picture book offers poems that depict festivities throughout the year.
Via short poems, Howell cheerfully portrays events children experience during the seasons. Some highlight the weather. In “New Year’s,” the author writes: “Icicles of pointy picks, / Promises of snow that sticks.” Others chronicle holidays like Arbor Day, Thanksgiving, and more. Some poems provide personal interpretations and specific details. For example, in “On Mother’s Day,” the narrator recounts picking out flowers for mom. In “School Play,” the speaker references people by name, “Cardboard cut out wagons, / Boats, and rail cars, too / Are strapped around the shoulders / Of Peter, Jake, and Lou.” The poems connect seamlessly, flowing chronologically from January to December. The author uses clever language and examples kids will relate to. In “Question to Groundhog,” Howell writes: “It spatters down, hits the ground /…sleet is sloppy. / I dropped my homework paper / It made it moist and floppy.” Howell also utilizes poetic devices, including personification, as in “When Labor Day Comes”: “Autumn licks its lips… / Chews a sun ray /…Eating summer / Out of our town.” Abundant in color and texture, Messinger’s wonderful, detailed illustrations feature layered and intricately cut paper accents. The thematic, unique, and detailed portrayals include friendly faces, joyful children, and family gatherings. The outdoor elements, like colorful skylines and mountains, are particularly excellent. The people depicted are of varying ages and skin tones.
A rousing, artistic celebration of childhood that should appeal to readers of all ages.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-950169-34-4
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Spork
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Quietly contemplative and thoroughly lovely.
A child finds adventure and a change of perspective on a dreary day.
Clouds cover everything in a palette of unending gray, creating a sense of ennui and gloom. A child stands alone, head down, feeling as gray as the day, and decides to ride through town on an old bike. Pops of color throughout the grayscale illustrations go unnoticed—there are yellow leaves scattered about, and the parking lot is filled with bright yellow buses, but this child, who has skin the grayish white of the page, sees only the empty playground, creaky swings, a sad merry-go-round, and lonely seesaws. But look—there’s a narrow winding path just beyond the fence, something to explore. There are things to be noticed, leaves to be crunched, and discoveries to be made. Imagination takes over, along with senses of wonderment and calm, as the child watches a large blue bird fly over the area. The ride home is quite different, joyful and filled with color previously ignored, reaffirming the change in the rider’s outlook. The descriptive, spare text filled with imagery and onomatopoeia is well aligned with well-rendered art highlighting all the colors that brighten the not-so-gray day and allowing readers to see what the protagonist struggles to understand, that “anything can happen…on a gray day.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Quietly contemplative and thoroughly lovely. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781797210896
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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