Review by New York Times Review
Young children will delight in these sweetly charming summertime picture books. SMILEY'S DREAM BOOK Written and illustrated by Jeff Smith Smith's capacious imagination takes flight, literally, in this picture book starring the happy-go-lucky, slightly dim Smiley Bone from the iconic Bone graphic novel series. Smiley takes a walk in the woods, counting the birds he sees, and finds himself flying, too. There's a suspenseful turn, and a surprise ending when he wakes and realizes it was all a dream. If you plan to steer a child toward the Bone books later (and you should!), this is a terrific introduction to a world full of wonder and unexpected rewards. 32 pp. Scholastic. $17.99. (Ages 2 to 6) THE SANDCASTLE THAT LOLA BUILT By Megan Maynor. Illustrated by Kate Berube. The joys of a day at the beach - along with those inevitable moments of frustration, too - are packed into this story of a girl building a sandcastle. There's a "dude with a Frisbee" who at first steps right on it, then helps fix it. There's a little guy with a bulldozer and a girl from Minnesota who end up helping, too. There's the wave that wipes their masterpiece away, and then the sweet moment of realizing they've formed a spontaneous "we" and can start building again. Berube's delightful paintand-collage illustrations capture an easy, playful beach mood, with a hint of mystery in the ocean and sky. 32 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $17.99. (Ages 2 to 6) DUDE! By Aaron Reynolds. Illustrated by Dan Santat. So much action and humor, so few words - just one, in fact (see the title), written in capitals or lowercase, in speech bubbles, or streeeeetched out. Expressed in the cheerfully bonkers illustrations by Santat, a Caldecott medalist, "Dude!" tells the story of a platypus and a beaver who go surfing together and meet a shark. A friendly one, it turns out, who wants to catch some waves with them: "Dude...?" he offers when they meet. More than half the fun, of course, is in reading this book out loud. Be ready for even the youngest kids to "read" it, too. 40 pp. Neal Porter/Roaring Brook. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8) PIE IS FOR SHARING By Stephanie Parsley Ledyard. Illustrated by Jason Chin. A book about sharing doesn't sound like much fun, but this one takes all the sting out. Ledyard's spare text is a poetic ode to things that are easy to share (a ball, a climbing tree, a story, a hideout), with an acknowledgment of one that's hard (a best friend). Chin's sublime watercolor and gouache illustrations, a master class in visual storytelling, follow a group of family and friends on a daylong picnic near the beach. Once the sun starts setting it's clear this is the Fourth of July, adding even greater resonance - a nation is, after all, above all a shared idea. 40 pp. Neal Porter/Roaring Brook. $17.99. (Ages 2 to 6) 40 pp. Candlewick. $16.99. (Ages 3 to 7) GOLDFISH ON VACATION By Sally Lloyd-Jones. Illustrated by Leo Espinosa. Enjoying summer in the city requires ingenuity, as this entertaining tale - based on reallife events - shows. Three siblings glumly pass time in their hot Manhattan apartment until the broken fountain down the street gets cleaned up and a sign suddenly appears on it, inviting goldfish to take a vacation. A neighborhood hangout is born, as all the residents stop by to visit their fish. Espinosa's sunny illustrations are a visual party. The only downer, we learn in a note, is that once the fountain was fixed for good, the goldfish summer vacations ended. 40 pp. Schwartz & Wade/Random House. $16.99. (Ages 4 to 8) SUN Written and illustrated by Sam Usher "Rain" and "Snow" came first in this series of stories about a boy who's stuck at home with his grandpa in all kinds of weather. Now it's a scorching summer day, and as in the previous books, the delicately handled subtext is that it takes patience and imagination to navigate the generational divide and get through the long hours. The pair "gather their provisions" and go for a walk, which the boy pictures as crossing the desert. Then they stop at a pirate's cove, picnicking with a merry band of buccaneers. Usher's jaunty visual style is a mash-up of two British greats, Quentin Blake and John Burningham. SAFFRON ICE CREAM Written and illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh When a little girl named Rashin is on her way to the beach in Brooklyn for the first time, she remembers what it was like to go to the beach when her family lived in Iran, where the men's and women's sections were strictly separated (severe-looking burka-clad ladies patrol) and saffron ice cream was her favorite treat. With her colorful, exuberant folk-art illustrations and upbeat, friendly tone, Rashin makes a daunting cross-cultural leap seem as easy as a summer breeze. 40 pp. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic. $17.99. (Ages 4 to 8) THE GRAND EXPEDITION Written and illustrated by Emma Adbage There are those (like me) who feel that "camping out" in the backyard is a high point of childhood adventure, and this adorable book from Sweden confirms it. Two small siblings inform their dad of their plans, and after gathering their supplies they pitch a tent and hunker down. No, they don't make it through the whole night out there, but does that even matter? With winsome mixedmedia illustrations that capture all the most telling details, and a fine-tuned ear for the way kids think and talk, Adbage understands the fun that can be found in a child's everyday reality. 40 pp. Enchanted Lion. $16.95. (Ages 4 to 8) maria russo is the children's books editor of the Book Review.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 7, 2019]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This celebration of kid-driven collaboration from Maynor (the Ella and Penguin books) and Berube (My Little Half-Moon) starts with an uh-oh moment: while retrieving his Frisbee, a boy accidentally tramples on Lola's sand castle. But instead of crying or accusing, Lola enlists: "You can use this bucket to fix it," she says. "What should we add next?" Encounters with other kids begin in a similarly unpromising manner but also result in more helpers, and Maynor gives each one a fun moniker: along with Frisbee Dude, there's Little Guy, a preschooler who uses his toy bulldozer to help build a moat, and Minnesota Girl, who adds shells from the collection she had planned to take back to the Midwest. The classic cumulative structure-a spin on "The House That Jack Built"-becomes a refrain after each new contributor joins ("These are the shells/ That lead to the moat/ That surrounds the wall/ That protects the castle"), and the collage and mixed-media illustrations make the shoreline landscape and the chill vibe of a beach vacation feel very close at hand. In an age of adult-organized play, this book offers a fun but pointed reminder that children are more than capable of organizing themselves. Ages 4-7. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-While building a sandcastle at the beach, Lola enlists the help of several children playing nearby. Cumulative text describing "the tall, tall, tower of the sandcastle that Lola built," as well as the sea glass on top to signal mermaids, is interrupted when a foot belonging to "dude with a Frisbee" accidentally kicks it. Instead of becoming angry, Lola enlists his help, and he builds a wall. "This is the wall that protects the castle.that Lola and Frisbee Dude built," continues the text, until a toddler with a bulldozer arrives. Lola redirects "Little Guy's" digging to constructing a surrounding moat. Finally, Minnesota Girl adds a seashell path and the masterpiece is complete-when."CRASH!" a huge wave destroys it. Lola is desolate until her new friends convince her to join them in making a new one. The cartoon illustrations are done in mixed media and collage. The cumulative text continually expands to include each one's contribution to the project. Little Guy's vocabulary appropriately consists of single words. Most scenes are spreads, and some include images of mermaids in clouds and sea. Lola's grief at the castle's destruction before the mermaids even move in is echoed in a scene of the child wrapped in blue hunched over atop blue-hued sand with mermaids floating away in the blue sky. VERDICT The delightful text, coupled with nondogmatic examples of intent cooperation, make this a wonderful choice for group sharing and a great vehicle for launching the beach season.-Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA © 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 Kirkus Book Review
Lola's beach day becomes more enjoyable when she gets a little help from some friends.The opening text adopts a cumulative pattern, reading: "This is the sandcastle that Lola built. // This is the tall, tall tower / Of the sandcastle that Lola built." Lola starts off her construction alone, but after she's topped the tower with sea glass "that signals mermaids," the narration is interrupted by Lola's own words: "This is the foot--'Hey! You stepped on my sandcastle!' " Lola immediately forgives the boy (called only "the dude with a Frisbee" or "Frisbee Dude") who's stepped on her sand castle and invites him to build with her. He adds a wall, and the cumulative text moves on…until it's interrupted by the arrival of a toddler and his toy truck. This pattern continues, with lines added to the cumulative text as both the sand castle and the group of children building it get bigger. Then, Lola is bereft when a big wave destroys their creation, but her new friends convince her to build a new one, together. Berube's illustrations, done in mixed media and collage, add visual humor and interest with their expressive depictions of the racially diverse children and background details--including mermaids hidden in clouds and sea. Lola has tan skin and straight, dark hair; Frisbee Dude has pale skin and curly, red hair, and the little toddler has medium brown skin and, adorably, no hair.Dig into this playful, beachy read. (Picture book. 2-6)
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