This almost-wordless picture book will appeal to young children who are experts at “reading” pictures, but their execution...
Syndicated comic-strip artist Tatulli ("Lio" and "The Heart of the City") translates his signature style into a debut picture book about the power of imagination.
An alarm clock brriinnggs and a blond, blue-eyed, white boy named Henry wakes up and gets dressed. Everything seems unremarkable, save his cowboy hat and boots, both red, until Henry digs deep inside a cereal box for the promised prize and tumbles in. When he opens his eyes, he finds himself in a wonderland filled with Technicolor cereal mountains and milk rivers. This is just the first of Henry’s wacky daydreams. His overactive imagination engages just long enough for him to get into trouble before shouts of “Henry!…Daydreaming again!” jolt him out of his reveries. In class, Henry hang glides on alphabets to the sun and slides down the globe—right into a bookcase full of books. And during recess, a wild ride on a grasshopper lands him in the mud. In an unexpected metafictive twist, Henry and his adventures turn out to be part of an Asian girl’s daydreams. Visually, Tatulli creates an interesting assemblage of comic panels, white space, and variations in perspective to create a dynamic story. However, his illustrations may better suit black-and-white newsprint, as the combination of rough edges and dark pencil outlines with flat, relatively unmodulated application of color is jarring.
This almost-wordless picture book will appeal to young children who are experts at “reading” pictures, but their execution falls short. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62672-354-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug.
What to do when you’re a prickly animal hankering for a hug? Why, find another misfit animal also searching for an embrace!
Sweet but “tricky to hug” little Hedgehog is down in the dumps. Wandering the forest, Hedgehog begs different animals for hugs, but each rejects them. Readers will giggle at their panicked excuses—an evasive squirrel must suddenly count its three measly acorns; a magpie begins a drawn-out song—but will also be indignant on poor hedgehog’s behalf. Hedgehog has the appealingly pink-cheeked softness typical of Dunbar’s art, and the gentle watercolors are nonthreatening, though she also captures the animals’ genuine concern about being poked. A wise owl counsels the dejected hedgehog that while the prickles may frighten some, “there’s someone for everyone.” That’s when Hedgehog spots a similarly lonely tortoise, rejected due to its “very hard” shell but perfectly matched for a spiky new friend. They race toward each other until the glorious meeting, marked with swoony peach swirls and overjoyed grins. At this point, readers flip the book to hear the same gloomy tale from the tortoise’s perspective until it again culminates in that joyous hug, a book turn that’s made a pleasure with thick creamy paper and solid binding.
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-571-34875-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
A brassy, assertive fellow—young readers in the middle of their own power struggles will relate.
A tugboat’s size and might are easy to anthropomorphize; add this personified puffer to the mix.
Tough Tug is built near Seattle, made of strong steel welded together and adorned with a fresh coat of bright red paint. Wide googly eyes and a determined smile complete the look. On launch day, Tough Tug triumphantly flashes forward and backward, twirling and swirling through the water. Older tugboats (distinguished variously by mustaches, glasses, and eye patches) grumble at the youngster’s bravado. “Push and pull is what tugs do. Practice THAT.” Tough Tug’s first job is to tow a barge to Alaska. Rhythmic mantras churn across the surface of the water in bold navy letters: “Ready, steady. / Steady, ready. // Chug and tug. / Tug and chug.” But Tough Tug is overeager and challenges Arctic Tug to a race. The thrum changes to “Race and run! / Run and race!” Arctic Tug is first to Sitka, but while crossing the open ocean to Anchorage, the older tug gets into trouble. It’s Tough Tug to the rescue! McClurkan’s digital paintings look quite modern, but there is a feel to his foamy waves that recalls the mid-20th-century harbor of Little Toot. The anthropomorphized boats have plenty of personality, and readers who study the expressions on the container ships will be rewarded. An author’s note explains this was inspired by a true story of one tug rescuing another boat from a competing tugboat company.
A brassy, assertive fellow—young readers in the middle of their own power struggles will relate. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5039-5098-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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