Review by New York Times Review
Dreamy marshmallows, rude animals, a portal to a mirror world: These gorgeous books expand minds. I CAN ONLY DRAW WORMS Written and illustrated by Will Mabbitt. Maybe Mabbitt can't draw many things, but boy, can he conceive and execute a witty, surprising, maximum fun picture book. Oh, and this one doubles as a counting exercise. Having announced that worms are his entire repertoire, Mabbitt proceeds to wrangle 10 neon-bright ones onto the pages, with hilarious difficulty. They're so hard to tell apart. And poor worm No. 8: "It's not true that if a worm is cut in half it makes two worms," we learn. "It makes two half worms." 32 pp. Penguin. $14.99. (Ages 3 to 5) THE SUN SHINES EVERYWHERE Written by Mary Ann Hoberman. Illustrated by Luciano Lozano. If you're as picky about rhyming picture books as I am, you'll be excited that the former children's poet laureate Hoberman, whose meter never falters, has created this clever ode to the sun and its globe-spanning, life-giving power. With Lozano's cheerful art, the pages fly by, dropping tidbits of geoscience and empathy-building name-checks of far-off places: "Some children live in Paris / And others live in Rome. / Some children dwell in New Rochelle / And some call China home." (But why no mention of Africans?) 32 pp. Little, Brown. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 7) MOST MARSHMALLOWS Written and illustrated by Rowboat Watkins. Can marshmallows be exquisite? That's the word that leaps to mind for this new picture book from Watkins ("Rude Cakes," "Big Bunny"), which is full of irresistible handmade figures and precisely detailed diorama art. With their delicately penciled-on faces and outfits, the marshmallows in this world are everyday folks: "They go to school most mornings / and learn to be squishy / and how to stand in rows," and they live in houses and celebrate birthdays. Like all Watkins's books, this one has wonderfully compact language and an ending that surprises, with a rousing, wholehearted imaginative leap. It turns out even humble marshmallows can - and should - dream big. 40 pp. Chronicle. $16.99. (Ages 3 to 7) ANOTHER Written and illustrated by Christian Robinson. Robinson's first book as both author and illustrator is a gentle, wordless wonder that follows a little girl and her cat after they find a portal into another world. There, children and pets encounter mirror versions of themselves - wearing different-colored clothes, so you can tell which is which. Robinson's geometric precision combines with his flatout adorable collaged characters to make for a unique kind of enchantment. You'll find yourself rotating the book to try to put the story's sophisticated puzzle together. 32 pp. Atheneum. $17.99. (Ages 3 to 8) A STORY THAT GROWS Written and illustrated by Gilles Bachelet. This nifty bedtime book from the esteemed French illustrator Bachelet has a parent-child pair of creatures on every spread. Each kid is in a species-specific crib, ready to hear a story that takes off in an appropriate direction: The ostrich's story "hatches," the snail's story "takes ... its ... time." The creatures, who include a truck and a Martian, are not named - this book asks for, and will reward, intense visual reading from young listeners, as they pore over the gorgeous, kooky bedrooms, filled with hilarious customized beds and toys. 32 pp. Eerdmans. $16. (Ages 3 to 7) OINK Written and illustrated by David Elliot. Elliot's funny story is told in animal sounds and onomatopoeia ("Mooo!" and "Boing!"). One by one, unruly animals join a pig in his bathtub. Pig looks distraught, then angry, until he creates a tub-clearing moment (think unidentified bubbles) and enjoys his bath in peace. The delicacy and subtlety of the art only adds to the frisky humor. 32 pp. Gecko. $16.99. (Ages 3 to 7) THE LITTLE GUYS Written and illustrated by Vera Brosgol. The little acorn-capped creatures in Brosgol's ("Leave Me Alone!") latest gem think they're "the strongest guys in the whole forest" - there are so many of them, after all. Marching and climbing together, they try to dominate bigger animals. As they try to yank a berry from a baby bird's mouth, they crash to earth. Chastened, they climb back up to feed the whole nest. What a fantastic message: not just "teamwork," but actual community. 40 pp. Roaring Brook. $17.99. A GREEN PLACE TO BE The Creation of Central Park Written and illustrated by Ashley Benham Yazdani. This delightful slice of history shows the hard work and careful planning that went into one of the world's great outdoor public spaces, New York City's "vibrant jewel." Yazdani's mesmerizing watercolor and pencil art teems with fascinating details as it makes the park's past and present seem unified, driving home the importance of creating and preserving "quiet green spots in a fast-changing world." 40 pp. Candlewick. $17.99. (Ages 7 to 10) MARIA RUSSO is the children's books editor at the Book Review.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 11, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
A small black cat wearing a red collar and an African American girl with colorful baubles in her hair take a peek into another dimension. The cat first notices a white oval that suddenly appears in the child's bedroom as she sleeps. In that oval is an image of an identical black cat wearing a blue collar that enters the girl's room and snaps up a toy mouse lying on the bedroom rug. The child wakes in time to see her pet follow its almost duplicate into the oval, and she, in turn, follows and immediately falls into a black hole, emerging in a topsy-turvy world where things are similar, but not exactly the same, as in her world. The brightly colored illustrations pop against a pure white background. Children, some upright and some upside down, are shown in a variety of clothing and skin colors, partaking in various activities. Is this a parallel universe, or is it all a dream? Readers will decide, and a little blue mouse may help with the final decision.--Maryann Owen Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Caldecott Honor artist Robinson's wordless solo debut opens in the middle of the night, when a brown-skinned girl with beaded braids is woken by a disturbance: a black cat that looks just like hers slinks through a glowing hole in her bedroom wall, takes her cat's mouse toy, and exits. As she and her cat follow, spot illustrations on white spreads show the two in a topsy-turvy journey through portals, over a conveyer belt and Escher-like stairs, and into a ball pit. Eventually, they arrive at a place where children of many ethnicities and appearances play. Each child has "another," readers see-a double, a twin. Soon, the girl and her cat meet their own doubles, who enter upside down on the opposite page. The girl's similar returns the toy and the two part happily, order restored. Simple geometric shapes and expanses of empty space make the spreads easy to consider, and Robinson nails the pacing, using each page turn for a comic or conceptual beat. Almost all children wonder whether there are others exactly like them somewhere out in the universe, doing the same thing at exactly the same time. By playing with that idea while juxtaposing similarity and difference, Robinson creates an almost mystical Droste effect of a story that is all mirrors and windows for the group of various children who are offered portals to reach one another. He also creates a speculative world with its own logic, and an adventure that will both puzzle and amuse. Ages 4-8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Both beautiful and fanciful, this wordless picture book recounts the dream journey of a little girl and her cat. As she slumbers, a portal of light appears in her bedroom, and an identical black cat-with a blue rather than red collar-appears. The visitor pounces on a red toy mouse, which he snatches as he runs back from whence he came. The girl's cat follows him with his owner, now wide awake, close behind. They encounter an undulating staircase, a roomful of colorful balls, and a bright, stripy treadmill, in a world with children of all backgrounds playing together. Hobby horses, hula hoops, sidewalk drawings, jump ropes, bubbles, and books occupy the happy youngsters. Here the girl meets her alternate self in an almost identical nightshirt-sporting a blue, rather than red planet. The other child pets her cat and retrieves the coveted red mouse, tossing it to its rightful owners. They say goodbye and return through their respective portals, back to their own worlds. The girl sleeps again; the cat rests on the bed with his toy. All is as it was.or is it? Was that blue mouse on the floor always there? Vibrant shapes reminiscent of Paul Klee or Piet Mondrian fill the pages. In the bedroom world, the background is black, while the dream world is set against stark white. The endpapers are painted a deep blue with planets, stars, and moons. VERDICT A work of art and celebration of childhood for all libraries.-Barbara Auerbach, Cairo Public Library, NY © Copyright 2019. 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
For his solo picture book debut, Robinson (illustrator of Last Stop on Market Street, rev. 3/15; Schools First Day of School, rev. 3/16; Whens My Birthday?, rev. 9/17; and more) offers a smart, sly, and imaginative wordless story about a girl and her cat embarking on a fantastical adventure. The girl is asleep in bed (on the right-hand page) when her wakeful, red-collared cat notices a white, ovular space shining from the verso. Turn the page, and theres another cat (this one in a blue collar) peeking out from that oval. The red-collared cat pursues the blue-collared one into the white space, and the girl wakes. She follows them and ends up in another dimension. At first, she appears to be sprouting from the ground through a black hole against the spreads white expanse; but her beaded braids stand up on end, defying gravityand providing a signal to readers to flip the book over. She follows her cat through another portal (and another and another), each time prompting reorientation of the book; after encountering her own double, she and her cat finally make it back home. A subtle visual punch line at books end, when girl and cat have returned to bed, will reward careful viewers with a laugh and a prompt to go back through the book to reassess characters roles and motives. megan dowd lambert March/April 2019 p 67(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 young child discovers a portal to a whole other plane of perspective in Robinson's latest.In the dark of night, a portal opens in a small girl's bedroom, the light attracting her cat. When the curious feline crawls through to chase another cat that looks just like it (but with a different color collar), the little girl cannot help but follow as well. Through the portal, the world goes topsy-turvyup is down, right is left, and color and shape capriciously collide as the ever smiling girl and her cat move from plane to plane. The duo eventually happens upon other children, all playing with alternate versions of themselves, and after a few page turns, our protagonista girl of color with black, beaded braidsspots her alternate self as well. The pair share a few meaningful moments, exchanging smiles and cat toys, until eventually each returns to her bed with the small promise of further adventures to come. The simple geometry of Robinson's work comes alive in this expanse of wordless narrative. A fearless use of white space and an utter disregard of conventions of direction encourage readers to engage with the physical book as the story unfolds, touching and turning it as they literally take the narrative into their hands.A bright, open primer for Escher. (Picture book. 2-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
