Day: April 22, 2019

Review: Baby Day by Jane Godwin and Davina Bell

| Tasha

Baby Day by Jane Godwin and Davina Bell

Baby Day by Jane Godwin and Davina Bell, illustrated by Freya Blackwood (9781481470346)

Today is baby’s birthday! So it’s time to have a party and a bunch of other babies are invited to the fun. The party is outside and as the babies arrive, so does a friendly dog that belongs to one of the families. There are cautious babies, friendly ones. Babies who worry for others and babies who are brave enough to use the big slide. There are fussy babies, crying babies, and eventually tired babies. Along with the babies, there are ice cream cones and plenty of cake before it’s time to head home.

Godwin and Bell show exactly what happens when you get a group of toddlers together. Often they merrily play alongside one another, other times they get upset. The book focuses solely on the party, follows the progression of emotions through, and ends merrily as people head home. It is simply written and a simple story that will work well for sharing with little ones heading to their first birthday party without setting huge expectations. Blackwood’s illustrations really lift this book to a new level. Her gentle and clever depictions of this group of children is done with attention to detail. One can follow each child through the party and their individual story makes sense.

A winning first birthday book just right for the smallest of children. Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy provided by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Review: Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn

| Tasha

Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn

Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn (9781681197432)

Cat and Chicken live in San Francisco with their mother who works several jobs, but one is to be a children’s book author with books that feature Cat and Chicken as a caterpillar and chicken. When they head across the country for a summer job, their plans suddenly fall through. Now Cat and Chicken must stay with grandparents they have never met before while their mother works in Atlanta. Their grandparents live on Gingerbread Island, a place their mother hasn’t returned to since before Cat was born. Lily, their grandmother, is warm and maternal, quickly adapting to Chicken’s special needs. Macon, their grandfather, is more distant and gruff, working in his workshop and going on long walks alone. As Cat and Chicken get to know them, they find a wonderful pair of grandparents who love them immensely, so Cat tries to figure out how to bring her family back together again. She hopes that entering a fishing contest, a sport her mother used to love, with give them an opportunity to bond. But things don’t quite work out as planned, just like in her mother’s books.

McDunn has written the ideal summer read. It has a lightness to it that is pure summer sunshine, one that invites reading with sand between your toes or a flashlight in a tent. At the same time, the characters and story wrestle with larger issues of what family means, how a family can form a rift, and how the pressure of having a little brother who is neurodiverse can be challenging for an older sibling. I deeply appreciated Chicken as a character. He is not labeled in any way in the story but shown as having specific challenges that make looking after him different from other children.

Cat herself is a very strong young woman who holds her family together. Her grandmother recognizes that and helps Cat understand better what she is doing. As her grandparents step in to allow Cat to have a summer as a child, she fights them, trying to retain her role as Chicken’s caretaker. That process of letting go is beautifully shown, given time and patience. Throughout the book, nothing is simple, not even Cat’s enemy on the island, whose own story provides reasons for his actions.

Richly drawn and yet still summer light, this novel is a delight. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC provided by Bloomsbury.