Review by New York Times Review
These enchanting tales include a magical wolf, a rampaging bunny and the latest from Sandra Boynton. HERE, GEORGE! By Sandra Boynton. Illustrated by George Booth The iconic cartoonist Booth sketched a nervous, lovable-looking dog as a gift to Boynton. She turned it into one of her famously funny, perfectly calibrated board books, spinning a droll story about a pup who won't get up - or so his owners think. 32 pp. Simon & Schuster. $7.99. Ages 0 to 5. CIRCLE ROLLS By Barbara Kanninen. Illustrated by Serge Bloch. In this delightful sneak-lesson in geometry, physics, and helping your friends when they're in a jam, some colorful shapes have a bang-up time when Circle starts rolling. In Bloch's minimalist, loose-limbed pen-and-ink art, tiny people try valiantly to pitch in, too. 32 pp. Phaidon. $16.95. Ages 3 to 5. BIG BUNNY Written and illustrated by Rowboat Watkins. Watkins ("Rude Cakes") conjures another homey yet mind-bending story in this bedtime tale about an enormous rabbit, regularsized carrots, some trucker penguins and bus-driving giraffes. The infectious fun continues to the ending, which will be - trust me - a giant, hilarious surprise to both parents and kids. 32 pp. Chronicle. $16.99. Ages 3 to 7. A HOUSE THAT ONCE WAS By Julie Fogliano. Illustrated by Lane Smith. Two kids walking in the woods find an abandoned house. Who lived there? What happened? Accompanied by Lane's evocative art that suggests layers of history, Fogliano's story turns this childhood scenario into a radiant poem about the mysteries of other people and the wonderfulness of home. 42 pp. Roaring Brook. $18.99. Ages 3 to 7. FOREVER OR A DAY Written and illustrated by Sarah Jacoby. In Jacoby's elegant debut, time is both a riddle and a poem: "Perhaps it is a ghost/ it can come and go/ and you never even notice it was there," she writes. Her soft illustrations, in lovely sunrise, sunset and moonlight colors, capture both wide-open spaces and the enduring bonds of family love. 40 pp. Chronicle. $17.99. Ages 3 to 7. MOON Written and illustrated by Alison Oliver. Oliver's picture book debut channels "Where the Wild Things Are" for the hovered-over modern child. Moon, a little girl with a big to-do list, wonders, "What would it feel like to be free?" A wolf arrives to whisk her away to a magical forest where she plays, listens, howls - and becomes an independent kid, keeping her "wolty ways," including (gasp) standing on a swing. 40 pp. Clarion. $17.99. Ages 4 to 7. JEROME BY HEART By Thomas Scotto. Illustrated by Olivier Tallec. It's rare to find a book about friendship between boys this heartfelt. His parents scoff at the intensity of it all, but Raphael wants to spend every minute with Jerome - his school-trip buddy, his defender against mean kids, the friend who always makes him laugh. Both the words and the sweet illustrations capture the spirit behind childhood bonds. 32 pp. Enchanted Lion. $16.95. Ages 4 to 8. RED SKY AT NIGHT Written and illustrated by Elly MacKay Each page of this beautifully designed book has an old-fashioned saying about the weather ("When ladybugs swarm, expect a day that's warm"). With Mac Kay's dreamy cut-paper collage art featuring two siblings exploring outdoors, the old-fashioned approach to weather is oddly reassuring. 40 pp. Tundra. $17.99. Ages 4 to 8. RESCUE & JESSICA: A LIFE-CHANGING FRIENDSHIP By Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes. Illustrated by Scott Magoon. Kensky, who lost both legs after the Boston Marathon bombing, despaired until Rescue, a service dog, arrived to help her navigate life with prosthetics. This sensitively told version- written with her husband, who also lost a leg in the bombing - highlights her relationship with the gallant Rescue. 32 pp. Candlewick. $16.99. Ages 5 to 9. THE DRAGON SLAYER: FOLKTALES FROM LATIN AMERICA Written and illustrated by Jaime Hernandez Hernandez, one of the brothers behind the Love and Rockets comic strip, adapts and updates three Latin American folk tales into a graphic-novel format. The buoyant results will delight all ages. A kitchen maid slays a dragon and marries a prince; a vain woman marries a mouse, with bad results; a boy cast out as lazy proves the logic of his approach. There's also fascinating historical material on the origins of each tale. 48 pp. TOON Books. $16.95. Ages 6 to 12. MARIA RUSSO is the children's books editor of the Book Review.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
How to explain the concept of time to a child? This lovely book makes a poetic effort. An unseen narrator takes readers through a day, starting at dawn, when if you look closely you can almost see it as the sky changes. Sometimes, you pay attention to time, as when you're running late, but it also can move slowly, even dreamily. And the more you try to hold it . . . the better it hides. Illustrating this contemplation are Jacoby's fresh and intriguing watercolors, which sometimes take up a spread or are divided into four squares per page. Along with the musings, there is a wisp of a story here. A boy and his parents are visiting grandparents at a beautiful lake, where, as the night deepens, the family embraces the joy of time spent together. Younger children may not quite understand what is being teased at first. But they'll appreciate the evocative words, the engaging artwork, and the feelings that passing time evokes, both happy and sad.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-The mercurial nature of time's passage is noticeable even to young children, who sense the difference between the spans of the approach of something dreaded (bedtime) and something eagerly awaited (a birthday). Jacoby's explication of time's slipperiness ranges from a poetic "quick as a heartbeat skip hello" to a prosaic "sometimes it helps the bus arrive." Her watercolor and pastel illustrations also switch moods. Whimsical figures gain detail through flicks of her paintbrush while expansive landscapes glow in layered applications of colors. A spread depicts groupings of passengers on a train and the text simultaneously conveys the rhythm of their heartbeats and the wheels over the tracks, "ba dum, ba dum, ba dum." A succession of panels shows the construction and erosion of a sandcastle. This is a book that bears repeated readings. Its treasures reveal themselves on close examination and its subject matter is, of course, profound. VERDICT A lovely lap book, exceptionally well-suited for intergenerational sharing again and again.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY © Copyright 2018. 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
Jacoby takes the abstract concept of time and presents it as an extended riddle: "the more you try to hold it...the better it hides." Watercolor, NuPastel, and mixed-media illustrations lend a softness to the narrative and combine minute details, such as facial expressions, with large expanses of bustling city scenes, sky, water, etc. The lyrical, contemplative text lends itself to one-on-one sharing. (c) Copyright 2019. 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
A parental meditation on time's elusive nature.Like the TIMES newspaper truck drifting through early-morning streets at the beginning, Jacoby's narrative is more often allusive than direct. "You can almost touch it," she writes. "Some people pay a lot of attention to it. / Some don't." Small figuresnotably three, two adults and one childoccupy a set of impressionistic urban and country scenes that begin with breakfast and a rush to catch a train, then move on to an idyllic visit with grandparents. Observations of time's passage, which can be slow or "quick as a heartbeat skip hello," parallel images in the pictures that play subtly on the theme, such as a toy train to contrast with the full-size one, or one parent and the mini-me child in identical poses. Following sequential views of a trip to the beach to make an elaborate sand castle and then watch it wash away ("Where does it go?"), a campfire singalong in piney woods, and a goodbye clinch, a night train back to the shimmering city leads to a cozy bedtime. What's the upshot? "We've only got what we've got," and the best we can do with that is to "love the time I have with you." The couple and their child are pale-skinned (one child and a parent sporting identical mops of frizzy, brown hair, and the other parent with long, black hair), but they travel amid an amusingly lively crowd that is diverse in both race and age.Big questions, simply put and answered, perhaps, as well as they can be. (Picture book. 6-8, adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
