A lyrical meditation on the magic of outdoor play that’s creditable for its back-to-nature message.
An imaginative, poetic picture book invites kids into the natural world.
The story follows three children—one brown-skinned, one Asian-presenting, and one White—as they envision themselves as elements in nature. Readers will feel compelled to imagine what it would be like to be a creek or a nest, a spring or a seed. Using many attributive adjectives and verbs of motion, each of the text’s rhyming quatrains starts with the refrain “if we were”: “If we were rivers, we’d run, boundless and wild and free”; “if we were rocks, we’d sit still,” and so on. Energetic watercolor gouache illustrations show the children moving through a forest, stopping by a pond, and running alongside a river as they head to the sea before darkness falls, prompting them to return home. There is the questionable use of a wigwamlike structure to represent a bird’s nest that the children sit inside, but most of the imagery is rooted in the flora and fauna of a woodland area. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lyrical meditation on the magic of outdoor play that’s creditable for its back-to-nature message. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5206-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
If Black Lives Matter, they deserve more specificity than this.
A lushly illustrated picture book with a troubling message.
Little Lala walks with her father after his successful day of fishing. When Mama calls her home for bed, a host of “good night”s delays her: to the bird, the monkey, and even the rock. As Lala wanders through her village in the darkening twilight, readers appreciate its expansive beauty and Lala’s simple joys. Although it’s been artfully written and richly illustrated by an award-winning author of many multicultural stories, this book has problems that overshadow its beauty. “African veld” sets the story in southern Africa, but its vague locale encourages Americans to think that distinctions among African countries don’t matter. Lala wears braids or locks that stick straight up, recalling the 19th-century pickaninny, and her inconsistent skin color ranges from deep ebony like her father’s to light brown. Shadows may cause some of these differences, but if it weren’t for her identifiable hair, readers might wonder if the same child wanders from page to page. Perhaps most striking of all is Lala’s bedtime story: not an African tale but an American classic. While this might evoke nostalgia in some readers, it also suggests that southern Africa has no comparably great bedtime books for Lala, perhaps in part because American children’s literature dominates the world market.
If Black Lives Matter, they deserve more specificity than this. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-17384-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
A soothing, logical, and playful introduction to mindfulness for young listeners.
What can you do when things go wrong?
Two children contemplate different ways to calm themselves down in this straightforward introduction to breathing, relaxation, and mindfulness. The younger, White-presenting child follows suit when the older, brown-skinned child proposes imaginative calming techniques. They picture themselves as various animals (goldfish, elephants, dragons) and objects (pinwheels, dandelions, wind chimes, flowers), inhaling and exhaling, that make deep breathing and calming down concrete and easy to comprehend. Simplified, whimsical illustrations add a touch of humor and a wink to the 1970s while preventing the story from becoming cloying, as soft, gentle instructions help the characters (and listeners) to understand some of the mechanics behind how to intentionally breathe and decompress. While not necessarily something that children will pick up unless they are learning about practicing mindfulness, this informative title has charm and warmth and will give youngsters some ideas as to how to self-regulate and manage their feelings as they learn to be aware of their breathing. Endpapers feature a multiracial array of children’s faces expressing different emotions.
A soothing, logical, and playful introduction to mindfulness for young listeners. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77164-637-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Greystone Kids
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
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