Picture Books

Review: Little Humans by Brandon Stanton

| Tasha

little humans

Little Humans by Brandon Stanton

The photographer behind Humans of New York brings his talent to a children’s book.  Using photographs taken on the streets of New York, this book speaks to the power of children.  Children may fall down, but they get back up, because they are tough.  But they still need love and friends.  Children are helpful, playful and talented.  They learn and grow.  They also know how to ask for help when they need it.  And they do so very much so well that they just might insist they are are not little after all, they are big!

On each and every page, Stanton celebrates urban culture and diversity.  There are children of every color here, each with their own unique sense of style and and distinct personality that pops on the page.  His photographs speak volumes beyond the text that does little more than support the gorgeous, hip photographs. 

A dynamic and diverse book that can be enjoyed by the smallest of children.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: The Twins’ Little Sister by Hyewon Yum

| Tasha

twins little sister

The Twins’ Little Sister by Hyewon Yum

This follow-up to The Twins’ Blanket features the same twin girls.  The book is told from their shared perspective.  In this book, the issue is that there are two of them, but they only have one mother that they have to share.  During nap time, both girls want their mother to look at them, but she can only look in one direction at a time.  Being pushed on the swings is also a problem, since their mother can only push one of them at a time.  Now they have a little sister arriving soon too and there will be even more demand for their mother’s time.  When the baby arrives, the girls are not impressed.  They can no longer be in the big bed with their mother because the baby is there.  Their mother can’t push the swings at all anymore, because her arms are full.  Then the girls discover that they get lots of attention for helping with the baby.  Soon the girls are adoring big sisters, but there’s still one problem, they need another little sister so they don’t have to share!

This is a clever twist on sibling rivalry that shows the closeness and competitive nature of being sisters and twins.  It is particularly good to see that the rivalry existed before the younger sibling arrived and that it was just another factor in the family dynamic.  The voice of the two girls together is clear and bright, they are strong-willed little girls but that is not a bad thing.  I appreciate a book that shows children being less than perfect on the page. 

Yum’s illustrations are done in pencil, watercolor and cut paper.  The girls are distinguished by their dresses and barrettes but are otherwise identical.  Emotions are clear on their faces, their eyes shining with feelings above their rosy cheeks. 

A great choice for new siblings, this picture book shows human children grappling with being siblings and sharing.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Monster Book by Alice Hoogstad

| Tasha

monster book

Monster Book by Alice Hoogstad

This wordless book shows the power of art for a whole community.  In a black-and-white town that looks like a coloring book with black outlines, a little girl picks up a red crayon and starts drawing a heart on a wall.  Soon she moves on to creating a monster on the road and her dog picks up her heart drawing and runs after her.  The orange monster comes to life and the girl quickly moves on to another creature.  One after another, she draws them and they come to life.  The rest of the town looks on with amused expressions and no alarm even as monsters dance in the streets.  Soon the monsters have crayons too and are coloring the buildings and people.  This though is too much and the townsfolk order them to leave town and the children start to clean up the walls back to white again.  Rain falls and washes all of the color away, or does it?

This is a picture book that celebrates public art and then turns whimsical and magical as the creatures come to life.  Despite their fearsome appearance, they are friendly and silly rather than mean.  The art is quite unique with its color-book feel and then the colors being drawn in.  There is a radiant quality to the colors that are used and the loose and generous way the colors are applied invites children to be even more creative when they color too.

While this could encourage children to color on white walls, this book is much more likely to end up in a family coloring together appropriately and creatively.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Lemniscaat and Myrick Marketing.

Review: Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton

| Tasha

shh we have a plan

Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton

The author of Little Owl Lost returns with another great picture book in his signature style.  In this book, four people head into the forest with nets at night.  There, they find a gorgeous red bird.  The littlest of them calls out “hello, birdie” but the others shush him and declare that they have a plan and show the cage they are holding.  They slowly tiptoe up to the bird, count off and jump!  But the bird flies up into a tree.  No worries, they have another plan.  And when that fails, another and another.  Finally, the smallest of them comes up with a plan that just might work, or maybe not.

This book is a stupendous read aloud.  The chipper, bright voice of the littlest of them, the hushed shushing from the others, the counting off and finally the shout of GO!  This happens again and again and will keep even the wiggliest of children paying close attention.  Even better, the little one is the one who figures things out and presents a solution.  Add at the end a wonderful twist to continue the story, and you have an outstanding picture book for sharing.

Haughton’s illustrations are created digitally but have the feel and texture of cut paper.  He uses beautifully deep blues throughout the nighttime story and then the bright red of the bird pops.  It also helps that the bird seems to live in its own beam of light, one that follows it as it escapes again and again.  It’s a clever use of stage lighting in a picture book.

A top pick for sharing aloud, this picture book is a dazzling dark delight.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Hunters of the Great Forest by Dennis Nolan

| Tasha

hunters of the great forest

Hunters of the Great Forest by Dennis Nolan

Released October 28, 2014

This wordless picture book is the story of a group of hunters who head out from their small village one day and into the forest.  Bringing only a handful of items with them, the group must face large rocks, mountains and enormous trees.  It quickly becomes apparent that the hunters are tiny people as they are forced to run from buzzing dragonflies and then from a hungry toad.  After escaping those creatures, the hunters must then flee from a bird and a chipmunk.  Sneaking out later from their hiding place, the hunters discover a girl sitting by a campfire roasting marshmallows.  But even though they have food to bring back to their village, the dangers are not over for our intrepid group of hunters.

Wonderfully detailed pictures make this a spectacular picture book to share.  The journey of the hunters makes for a page-turning delight filled with dangers, mishaps and surprises.  If you pay close attention to the illustrations, some of the surprises can be predicted with clues about the next page.  For example, you can see the toad’s legs in the corner of the page before the toad is fully revealed after the page turn.  This makes for a book that reads as a continual stream of story, rather than individual images strung into a story.

I applaud Nolan for including plenty of little female hunters on the journey as well.  There are young and old little people too.  And even better, if you watch, it is not the women who need rescuing on the journey.  In fact, the older of the little women carries the spear the entire journey and seems ready to use it at times.

Join the hunters on their quest for the elusive marshmallows in this journey through a forest filled with dangers of all sorts.  It’s a jolly read that is sure to please.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

Review: Sweetest Kulu by Celina Kalluk

| Tasha

sweetest kulu

Sweetest Kulu by Celina Kalluk, illustrated by Alexandria Neonakis

Kulu has just been born and is being welcomed by the world.  Kulu is Inuit and as the world comes to welcome the baby, traditional Inuit beliefs are shown in the story.  It is the Arctic summer, so the first to welcome Kulu is Smiling Sun, who stays bright all through the night.  The Wind arrives and teaches Kulu the importance of listening closely.  Then the animals start arriving.  These are not your normal animals, but ones that are specifically from the Arctic and of importance to the Inuit.  With each animal comes a blessing:  the Snow Bunting reminds Kulu to always believe in himself, Fox tells Kulu to get out of bed as soon as you wake and to help anyone who needs it.  The entire book sings with a connection to nature, to this specific region of the earth, and for the love of a baby.

Kalluk, who is an Inuit throat singer, has beautifully captured the values of her people in this picture book.  It is done so organically and naturally that many will not realize that this is more than a sweet picture book.  The fact that it also weaves in traditions and values of the Inuit makes the book all the more special and noteworthy.  Kalluk writes very lyrically, creating moments for each of the animals that are unique to them which keeps the book from becoming repetitious.

The illustrations have a lovely cartoon quality to them, one can almost see them leaping to life from the page.  The large animals dwarf little Kulu by their bulk, but the tenderness they all feel for this tiny baby shines on the page.  There is a respect between human and animal that is warm and tangible too.

A gorgeous and meaningful book welcoming a baby to the world, this picture book is unique and special.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from ARC received from Inhabit and Myrick Marketing.

Review: And Two Boys Booed by Judith Viorst

| Tasha

and two boys booed

And Two Boys Booed by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

From the author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day comes a new book all about overcoming stage fright.  A boy is performing in a talent show and knows that he is ready to sing his song because he’s been practicing and practicing it.  Plus, he also has on his lucky blue books and his pants with lots of pockets.  He is very confident until the other five children start performing their acts.  Then his mood changes, even though he still says that is he fine.  The story uses repetition that mirrors the child’s internal dialogue about his lucky pants, the pockets, and how much he has practiced, adding another line about each child’s performance and it all leading up to his.  When his turn finally comes, he is almost unable to stand up, much alone sing and two boys boo him from the crowd.  But in a final burst of determination, the boy stands and his brain starts to make sense again, and he sings.  And two boys booed, but the rest of the children cheered!

Viorst takes a universal fear of both children and adults and turns it into a very engaging picture book.  I love the modern setting of the book paired with the timeless use of a story that repeats again and again, building through the story.  It matches the nerves that the boy is feeling and creates a wonderful tension as each new person gets up to perform.  Adding in the booing children is brilliant, because that is what most of us fear, the negative reaction of the crowd.  But in the book that happens, the boy faces it and continues his performance. 

Blackall’s illustrations clearly show the boy’s emotions even as he bravely continues to repeat to himself that it is all OK.  He looks directly at the reader, conveying his surprise at feeling nervous and pulling his striped shirt higher and higher in an attempt to hide.  Blackall has incorporated a lift-the-flap component into her illustrations allowing us to peek into the boy’s pocket and at the end of the book the effect is used to propel the entire story forward in a creative way.

A smart and very human picture book about performance, nervousness and overcoming it all.  This would be a perfect book to share with children about to do a show.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Review: Chik Chak Shabbat by Mara Rockliff

| Tasha

chik chak shabbat

Chik Chak Shabbat by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

Every Saturday, the residents of one apartment building spend the day smelling marvelous smells drifting down from the 5th floor.  And every Saturday evening, everyone gathers on the 5th floor for Goldie’s cholent, a traditional Jewish stew.  But then one Saturday, there was no wonderful smell and when little Lali Omar went up the stairs, she found that Goldie was too sick to get the cholent cooking and it was too late to start the slow-cooking stew.  All is not lost though, as the neighbors look through their own pantries and refrigerators and create a Saturday meal that is not cholent but has many of the same ingredients incorporated into foods from their own personal heritages.  There is Korean barley tea, tomato pizza, potato curry, and beans and rice. 

Rockliff’s Shabbat tale is an amazingly diverse story.  While it follows Jewish traditions in the beginning, including Goldie sharing memories as a little girl of Shabbat with her extended family, the magic comes when Goldie gets ill.  Not only does the reader quickly realize how important this shared meal and time is for the entire building, but suddenly the heritage of each person is shown through their food.  It’s a clever way to show community and diversity in a single situation.

Brooker’s illustrations combine cut paper art with rich thick paint.  The result is the same winning combination of dishes served at the community Shabbat table.  The different textures and colors come together to be something more than their individual parts, creating a dynamic world.

Celebrating community, this book shows how diverse people can come together in friendship and harmony to save the day.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel

| Tasha

i am jazz

I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas

Told in the first person, Jazz explains to readers her favorite things like the color pink, dancing, singing, makeup and mermaids.  She talks about her best friends Samantha and Casey and what they do together.  Then Jazz talks about how she is different than the girls she is friends with.  Jazz was born a boy but has a girl brain.  She explains that she is transgender and then talks about how she has been this way since she was a very little child.  Readers will see her family come to terms with Jazz being transgender and the support she got from them and the school she attends.  The end touches on bullying, but that is not the focus of this book.  It is a positive and personal look at being a transgender child.

Written by Herthel and Jazz herself, this book takes the right tone about the subject from the first page.  First, it establishes firmly that Jazz is a girl.  It is only after that that readers are told that she is transgender.  That topic is handled in a very matter-of-fact way and the book does not delve into issues of genitals, hormones or treatments of any kind.  It is kept right at the correct level so that this can be used with children who are transgender themselves or have a transgender sibling or classmate. 

McNicholas’ illustrations keep Jazz merrily feminine throughout.  When depicting Jazz as a little boy as a younger child, the illustrations manage without anything overt to show how out-of-place Jazz feels in those clothes and that hair.  It is gently framed, but clear in the pictures that Jazz is much happier living as a girl.

A great pick for classrooms or schools with transgender children, this is also a book that parents will appreciate having at their library.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial.