Review by New York Times Review
The land heavyweights of the animal kingdom figure largely in three picture books. TWEAK TWEAK By Eve Bunting. Illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier. 40 pp. Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $14.99. (Picture book; ages up to 3) POMELO BEGINS TO GROW By Ramona Badescu. Illustrated by Benjamin Chaud. Translated by Claudia Bedrick. 48 pp. Enchanted Lion Books. $16.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) GRANDPA GREEN Written and illustrated by Lane Smith. 32 pp. Roaring Brook Press. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 9) FEW creatures can compete with elephants when it comes to being both magnificent and ungainly, but human children, if we're being honest with ourselves, come close. This sense of distant kinship, plus the fact that trunks are the coolest appendages this side of opposable thumbs, may be why elephants have been a staple of children's literature since the days of Rudyard Kipling and Jean de Brunhoff. True, they're not quite so numerous on the bookshelf as bunnies, mice and ducklings, but they outnumber squids by a long shot, and, what with their tree-stump legs, bulky bodies, sail-like ears and those sinuous trunks, elephants are surely more fun for illustrators to draw than just about anything, aside from explosions. So elephants: bring 'em on! And here they are, in two new picture books that use elephant protagonists to explore the pleasures and anxieties of growing up, and a third, on the far side of the equation, in which an elephant symbolizes age and endurance - thanks, presumably, to the species' reputation for long memory and Botox-defying wrinkles. I loved "Pomelo Begins to Grow." Funny, smart and idiosyncratic, graceful and intuitive in a way that feels as much dreamed as written, Ramona Badescu's tale (translated from the French) is less a story per se than a series of musings, a kind of ad hoc therapy session for those conflicted about getting older, which, in contemporary America, where middle-aged men dress like skate punks and 20-something women covet face-lifts, means pretty much everyone. Badescu's title character is a little garden elephant (distant relative to a lawn flamingo, I learned from an online garden-supply catalog), who notices one morning that "his favorite dandelion" seems unusually small. So too some strawberries, a pebble, a potato and an ant Light bulb: Pomelo realizes it's he himself who's getting bigger. At first, this is cause for elation. "Yippee! Yahoo! Yay! All at once, Pomelo feels the super-hyper-extra force of the cosmos spreading through him." I wouldn't want to be the parent who has to explain this metaphysical conceit to a 4-year-old, though Benjamin Chaud's wonderful illustration of Pomelo vaulting between planets puts the mood across nicely. But back on earth, after banging his head on a low-hanging tomato, Pomelo - whose giant circular eyes with their giant circular pupils owe something to Mo Willems's pigeon - begins to have second thoughts. "Is he already too big for his world? . . . Pomelo begins to forget what it was like to be really little." Children, who in my experience are far more nostalgia-prone than adults - I've seen kids pine for half an hour ago - will surely relate to this sense of impending loss. A cheeky writer, Badescu risks parental dismay by tossing in further anxieties that might never have occurred to kids, like Pomelo's fear that he "won't grow equally all over." The final page finds our hero still trying to make sense of what's happening to his body, but confident and ready for adventure. Kids will be reassured as well as stimulated and amused; adults will find their own resonances. I wish I had been as charmed by Eve Bunting's "Tweak Tweak," which treads a more familiar path through similar territory. Here, Mama Elephant takes Little Elephant for a walk. Little Elephant spots a frog leaping across a pond and wants to know if she can jump like that too. "No," says Mama Elephant, "because you are not a frog. You are a little elephant. But you can stomp your foot and make a big sound." A monkey climbing a tree, a crocodile swimming in a river and an airborne butterfly prompt similar questions and similar "no, but" self-esteem bolstering: yes, everyone's special in his or her own special way, everyone should love himself and everyone will find a place in the world. The good news is that children, not having already read 100 books with a similarly worthy moral (not to mention the entire run of O: The Oprah Magazine), won't gag. In that vein, Sergio Ruzzier's illustrations are pretty and perfectly nice. I'LL be honest: It's a stretch to include "Grandpa Green," by Lane Smith (probably best known as the illustrator of "The Stinky Cheese Man"), in this elephant-themed review, but the book is such an unassuming little masterpiece it deserves the shoehorning. A "plot" summary won't do it justice, since the book's power lies in its rich, allusive artistry, but here goes: a boy narrates the story of his great-grandfather's life - from birth through adolescence, war, marriage, parenthood and into old age - while walking through a topiary garden whose figures illustrate, either literally or symbolically, scenes from the great-grandfather's life. Near the end, the boy notes, "Now he's pretty old and he sometimes forgets things" - that's where a topiary elephant comes in - "but the important stuff the garden remembers for him." That thought leads into a beautiful foldout of the entire garden, a full life in shrubbery; left unsaid is that the boy himself is another kind of memory-garden. Unlike "Tweak Tweak," this volume, I'm guessing, will find more passionate readers among parents than children - I'm not sure how nostalgic children are about other people's lives - though some will respond to the craft and artfully distilled sentiment. Those who don't will at least enjoy getting lost in the pictures, and may not even mind the relative paucity of trunks and tusks. Bruce Handy, a deputy editor at Vanity Fair, is currently writing a book about reading children's books as an adult.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 21, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review
The idea of a garden as a lockbox of memories is not a new one, but rarely is it pulled off with this kind of panache. Lane drops us into a story of an unnamed person. He was born a really long time ago, before computers or television. Who we see, though, is a fairly modern-looking boy tending to an increasingly impressive topiary garden featuring creations sculpted to visualize each stage of the person's life. Chicken pox are represented by berries across a humanlike shrub's face. Going off to war is visualized by a cannon-shaped shrub with branches shooting from its muzzle. Sketched with a finely lined fairy-tale wispiness and dominated by verdant green, the illustrations are not just creative but poignant especially after it is revealed that the boy is the great-great-grandson of the old man whose life is being described, and whose failing memories are contained in this garden (most impressively in a four-page fold-out spread). Possibly a bit disorienting for the very young, but the perfect book to help kids understand old age.--Kraus, Danie. Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this reflective tale, Smith (It's a Book) departs from his customary irony to muse on the memories, talents, and traditions passed down through generations. Smith's young narrator, in overalls and rubber boots, describes his great-grandfather. The boy waters plants and tidies up in a magnificent topiary garden, lined in delicate ink and decorated with ornamental hedges in the shapes of people, animals, and iconic objects. "He was born a really long time ago, before computers or cell phones or television," says the boy, and the first topiary depicts a crying baby. Other creations include rabbit- and chicken-shaped shrubs to suggest a childhood farm; a head-shaped bush dotted with red berries ("In fourth grade he got chicken pox"); and an erupting cannon to signify wartime. Smith works in an impressionistic range of emerald, moss, and seaweed hues, memorializing Grandpa Green's life events in meticulously pruned shrubs. The child eventually catches up with an elderly man who "sometimes forgets things. But the important stuff, the garden remembers for him." It's a rare glimpse into Smith's softer side-as skillful as his more sly offerings, but crafted with honesty and heart. Ages 5-9. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-A child relates the story of his great-grandfather's life as it had been told to him in Smith's poignant story (Roaring Brook, 2011) about childhood on a farm, dreams and imagination, and a life filled with loving memories. Growing older sometimes means forgetting, but this tale celebrates the ability to keep memories alive in different ways. Noah Galvin narrates this simple, but poetic account of a man's life and the topiary garden that shares his story. The narration is simple, with little expression. Page-turn signals are optional. Make sure to have the book available since Smith's illustrations are what makes this Caldecott Honor book so successful.-Kelly Roth, Prospect Park School, PA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
As his "great-grandkid" narrates Grandpa Green's life, the old man himself depicts its major events in his own felicitous medium: topiary, rendered by Smith in multimedia shades and shadows of evergreen that (save for a few embellishing tendrils) pretty much adhere to the possibilities of boxwood shaped by the master Grandpa is. Meanwhile, the boy (an expressive little figure porting garden tools, in graceful strokes of ink on spacious white) observes and interacts with these topiary memorials to Grandpa's past: a giant carrot ("He grew up on a farm") nibbled by present-day bunnies; characters from books Grandpa enjoyed as a child; the girl he kissed in middle school. Touches of red are significant: the Cowardly Lion's topknot; when Grandpa goes to war, botanical cannon fire (recalling Drummer Hoff); for his marriage, a heart. Rounding out the story are the boy finding Grandpa's glasses for him ("He used to remember everything"); a wide, ancient tree whose leaves represent the four seasons, left to right; and Grandpa creating a new work that's revealed -- in a double fold that recapitulates the book -- to be the boy. From a jacket image of the entranced child watching Grandpa shape an elephant to a last view of that child fashioning a topiary Grandpa, a thoughtful, eloquent, and elegantly illustrated book to explore, consider, and read again. joanna rudge long (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An adoring great-grandson and a topiary garden tell the stories of one man's life.Watering a garden, pulling a wagon, collecting dropped gardening gloves and tools, a little fellow works in an amazing topiary world made of memories. The trees tell the story of his great-grandfather's lifefrom birth to chicken pox to high school to military service and, later, marriage. Many of the illustrations morph with page turns: Tears from the baby become water from a hose; a mysterious conical shape becomes a cannon; a bunny near a tiny tree munches a carrot topiary. Splashes of redberries, a hair bow, gunfire and a heartmake brief appearances in this green world, but green, like Grandpa's name, is the star of this show. When the boy reunites Grandpa Green with his missing things, readers discover that though Grandpa sometimes forgets, the garden remembers for him. The illustrations say what the text doesn't need tothat the love between boy and elder is elemental and honest. One surprising and sparkling gatefold shows the whole garden, with Grandpa Green working on his newest creation: his grandson fighting a dragon. Readers who slow down will be rewarded by this visual feast that grows richer with each visit.Though this book has lots of adult appeal, it will also be a wonderful bridge to exploring family history with the very young.(Picture book. 5-9)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
