Review by New York Times Review
Harvest APPLE Written and illustrated by Nikki McClure. 40 pp. Abrams Appleseed. $12.95. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) McClure's homage to the old-fashioned apple lands like a spirited rebuke to packaged baggies of presliced fruit and G.M. apples that never rot. Her trademark block cutouts, pared down here to black, white and red delicious, travel backward from ripe fruit to planted seed, well timed for an autumn tale about seasons and renewal. The art is gorgeous, the text is one-word-per-page minimal and the "story" is sprinkled with welcome surprises. An apple swings from its tree; a girl hides an apple in her backpack on her way to school and forgets it on the ground at recess. Think a new tree will grow there? LITTLE SWEET POTATO By Amy Beth Bloom. Illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. 32 pp. Katherine Tegen Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 7) Poor sweet potato - all that vitamin C, and still lumped together with the stuff of French fries. Bloom, a National Book Award finalist for grown-ups, turns her pen to picture books and sweet potatoes in this heartfelt and heartwarming debut about a tuber who doesn't fit in. The carrots are disdainful. The eggplants, full of themselves. "You're a lumpy, bumpy, dumpy vegetable, and we're beautiful," the flowers sneer. Luckily, in this mean-kids parable, Little Sweet Potato finds a more accepting patch of flora to plant himself in. Probably organic, too. SEED BY SEED The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman. By Esmé Raji Codell. Illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins. 32 pp. Greenwillow Books/ HarperCollins Publishers. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Codell asks readers to seat themselves at a window, looking out over a highway-covered landscape and imagine a "quiet, tree-bough-tangled world, the world before the cement was poured and the lights turned on." Codell's lilting text and Perkins's sumptuous landscapes will have urban parents ready to up-and-to-the-country. But stick around for the man's frontier life story, told here inspiration style. This is Johnny Appleseed - pioneer, reader, vegetarian, spiritualist, businessman, friend of American Indians and tamer of wolves. He planted apple seeds, too. CREEPY CARROTS By Aaron Reynolds. Illustrated by Peter Brown. 40 pp. Simon & Schuster. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Zombies, bullies, root vegetables - they're all pretty scary to children. Especially when combined in an oversize carrot. Playing off a child's worst nightmare, Reynolds shows how carrots suddenly seem to lurk in every corner, tormenting a poor bunny. The stark and atmospheric illustrations by Brown ("Children Make Terrible Pets"), working exclusively in shades of gray save the garish orange of the vegetables in question, are simply splendid. But be warned: for the 5-year-old faint of heart, the story may sting too sharply. READY FOR PUMPKINS Written and illustrated by Kate Duke. 40 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 8) Duke ("Our Guinea Pig Is Not Enough") introduces Hercules, first-grade rodent, in a multilayered tale about time, the seasons and the long, impatient wait for a full-grown pumpkin to pick. Abandoning the formula for class-pet tales, Duke shows Hercules to have a life outside the classroom. When the teacher takes Herky to her country home for the summer, he discovers his horticultural side. Especially marvelous is what Herky's accomplishment shows children: animals and plants have lives and life cycles of their own. PAMELA PAUL Woof BAILEY AT THE MUSEUM Written and illustrated by Harry Bliss. 32 pp. Scholastic Press. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) First Bailey wanted to go to school ("Bailey"). Now he wants to leave the classroom for school trips. Who can blame him when the destination is the American Museum of Natural History, that staple setting for great children's literature? Bliss's student-filled scenes recall the adventures of Ms. Frizzle's crew, with Bailey asking all the good questions. Bliss, who draws cartoons for The New Yorker, throws in choice asides for grown-ups (on the lunch menu: Soy Stuff, marked "Almost Organic"). BOOT & SHOE Written and illustrated by Marla Frazee. 40 pp. Beach Lane Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) A genius at capturing human expression and antics, Frazee ("The Seven Silly Eaters," "The Boss Baby," "Clementine") seems equally unrivaled at depicting canine behavior and emotion. Boot and Shoe are brothers who live peacefully in the same home, sharing food bowl and bed, but then each retreating to his own porch for rest and contemplation. One day, a scampering squirrel mixes things up; chaos ensues. Expertly drawn, full of humor and affection and beautifully arranged, "Boot & Shoe" is a jubilant romp from beginning to end. READY OR NOT, HERE COMES SCOUT! By Jill Abramson and Jane O'Connor. Illustrated by Deborah Melmon. 32 pp. Viking. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Small, cute, overeager and indiscriminately affectionate is an apt way to describe a certain alpha-strain of preschooler. Or a puppy. And really, what's the difference? Especially when the puppy, Scout, has her very own lovey too, and just wants to play and make friends. Abramson, the executive editor of The New York Times, and O'Connor, author of the phenomenally popular "Fancy Nancy" books, are sisters and co-authors of this picture book inspired by Abramson's Puppy Diaries blog and subsequent grown-up book. Billed as "A Puppy Diaries Book," Scout's friendly tale is clearly the first in a series. Note the cliffhanger: Will Taco ever warm to Scout's overtures? We need not ask the same of readers. LENORE FINDS A FRIEND A True Story From Bedlam Farm. By Jon Katz. 32 pp. Henry Holt & Company. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) A follow-up to "Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm," Lenore's genial true tale, told through lively animal photography and sweet, descriptive text, works as a stand-alone. Lenore is the last of five working dogs on Katz's upstate New York farm, and none of the other dogs want to be friends with her. (A puppy portrait reveals the obvious: jealousy.) One day, Lenore approaches Brutus, "a grumpy ram," and gives him a big kiss on the nose. "Brutus had never been kissed before. He turned away." But not for long. This is a story about friendship, and eventually, Brutus cottons to Lenore's affections. Others soon do the same. LULU WALKS THE DOGS By Judith Viorst. Illustrated by Lane Smith. 145 pp. Atheneum. $15.99. (Middle grade; ages 6 to 10) Viorst's narrator-heroine, enjoying a fresh turn after "Lulu and the Brontosaurus," is full of 'tude and doesn't care if you don't like it. A child of entitlement, Lulu is nonetheless told she needs to earn money for her latest heart's desire. Dog walking teaches her a lesson. Lulu feels like a cousin of, and a step up the chapter book ladder in difficulty from, Junie B. Jones. Smith's sharp-eyed charcoals add kick. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 30, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
Playing on the something-is-stalking-me-but-when-I-turn-around-nothing-is-there fears that have fueled countless scary movies, this goose-pimpler introduces a young bunny named Jasper who couldn't get enough carrots . . . until they started following him. Tired of heart-racing, sleepless nights, Jasper concocts a master plan and builds an alligator-filled moat and sky-high fence around Crackenhopper Field to keep those nasty carrots at bay. Turns out, their plan to keep that nasty rabbit from eating their carrot buddies has a similarly happy ending. Brown's charcoally black artwork is highlighted by deep oranges and delivers on the lighthearted thrills of Reynolds' fright-night story.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a spot-on parody of a paranoid thriller, a hungry bunny senses "creepy carrots" watching his every move. Jasper Rabbit doesn't think twice about plundering the carrots of Crackenhopper Field "until they started following him." Jasper glimpses three jack-o-lantern-jawed carrots behind him in the bathroom mirror (when he turns around it's just a washcloth, shampoo bottle, and rubber duck-or is it?), and he yells for his parents when a carrot shadow looms on his bedroom wall. Reynolds (Snowbots) makes liberal use of ellipses for suspense, conjuring the "soft... sinister... tunktunktunk of carrots creeping." Brown (Children Make Terrible Pets) illustrates in noirish grayscale with squash-orange highlights and dramatic lighting, framing each panel in shiny black for a claustrophobic film-still effect that cements the story's horror movie feel. Jasper's grin grows maniacal as he constructs a fortress and moat to contain the offending carrot patch, giving the carrots a happy ending in this Hitchcock spoof (Brown even sneaks in a sly Vertigo reference). Watch out, vegetarians-these carrots have bite! Ages 4-8. Agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Jasper Rabbit's craving for carrots is insatiable. He raids Crackenhopper Field several times a day, and his manner shows no regard for the vegetables' feelings. He "pulled," "yanked," and "ripped" them out before greedily gorging. Everything changes when he senses that he is being followed. Carrots seem to be "creeping" up on him everywhere he goes. Jasper's eyes play tricks on him (or do they?), as he sees the veggies' menacing reflections in the bathroom mirror, silhouettes on the bedroom wall, shapes on the shelves in the shed. Brown's panels-bordered in black, drawn in pencil, and digitally composed and colored-cleverly combine the mood of film noir with the low-tech look of early children's television staging for an aesthetic that is atmospheric, but not overwhelming. The scenes are rendered in black, white, and gray-except for the carrots and the objects that stand in for them when Jasper does his double takes: these are all orange. Panels in varying sizes and multiple perspectives keep pace with Reynolds's tongue-in-cheek narrative as Jasper solves his problem by building a fortress, complete with an alligator-filled moat, around the offending plants. Little does he know that the carrots are cheering on the other side of the fence at the success of their plan to keep the herbivore out. This age-appropriate horror story takes children's fears seriously and then offers them an escape through genuine comic relief. Contrast this with the equally hilarious moat and bunnies in Candace Fleming's Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! (Atheneum, 2002).-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library (c) Copyright 2012. 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 Kirkus Book Review
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field. Jasper loves carrots, especially those "free for the taking." He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown's hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables' eerie orange on each page. "Jasper couldn't get enough carrots / until they started following him." The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper's imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book's characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach. Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
