The small cast — three children and a dispossessed old man whose shack is in the path of a new superhighway — sounds familiar, and the relatively short time span and few incidents make this more like a story than even a children's novel. And when the goat man withdraws from the world in his new project home, then sets off wordlessly to sit with a shotgun in the old one that's about to be bulldozed, Byars resorts to a bike accident that injures his grandson Figgy to bring the old man out of the shack and back to reality. The ending, in which a doctor called to the accident (he's the father of Ada, the third child) resolves to find a farm for Figgy and his grandfather, is even more pat. But it is easy to identify and sympathize with overweight, daydreaming Harold, Figgy's new friend, whose very fantasies are expressed with a cant-mocking, self-deprecating wryness and whose apprehensive, lonely walk to fetch the armed goat man for his injured grandson is a modest act of courage. Figgy, too, with his fear of bicycles and his urchin's impulsiveness, is an appealing sketch, and if we never get behind what Harold considers Ada's "remote, Egyptian look," her supportive competence is just what both boys need. Slight in body, trite in plot, but very nicely handled.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1974
ISBN: 0140315330
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Wonderful, indeed
A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot.
Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin’s text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read “This is the first time / There’s ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do” capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading “Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?” shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin’s fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-’n’-roll band of mice paralleling the children’s own band called “The Missing Teeth”—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime.
Wonderful, indeed . (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37671-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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