A touching and beautiful guide to consideration and kindness.
Everyone has the power to change the world, even children.
All they need to do, encourages Tierney, is start small and follow 12 easy steps. Some are simple. They can give their parents a hug, clean their room, or invite someone sitting alone to join them. Other steps are more nuanced or challenging: accepting people for who they are, never giving up on their dreams, and standing up to a bully without becoming a bully. Letourneau draws racially diverse children thoughtfully engaging with the world. Her bright, charming illustrations amplify each step, one double-page spread for each. While the simple text speaks directly to readers, the illustrations extend it, showing readers through facial expressions and actions how to follow the steps. There are even occasional instances of speech or thought bubbles, showing specific examples of how children can embody the gesture suggested. The final step is a beautiful explication of forgiveness: “Forgiveness doesn’t mean what they did was okay….Forgiveness means that you decide you don’t want to be angry, and when the anger is gone, there is more space for happiness.” It and the entire book were inspired by Eva Kor, a Holocaust survivor, who inspired many with her capacity to forgive the people who caused her so much loss and pain. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A touching and beautiful guide to consideration and kindness. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-939100-54-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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