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 Horn Book Review
A panda mother reads a bedtime story "that grows" like the bamboo bed her cub is tucked into; a walrus dad sits atop ice reading a story "that's made to melt" to his child; and so on. The story types are occasionally stretches, but playful language and art details (such as the goldfish child playing with a toy octopus on a seashell rug) enliven this French import. (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
You don't have to be human to like a good bedtime story.Bachelet's circular tale, originally published in France as Une histoire qui ("A story that"), features a slew of different species of parents reading stories to their little ones at bedtime. On the cover, a butterfly parent reads to its caterpillar child, who cuddles in bed with a stuffed panda toy in bed. On the first double-page spread, text reading "A very gentle mom, / a chubby-cheeked child, / a cuddly friend with whiskers / a story that grows" accompanies an illustration of a panda mother reading to her panda baby, who clutches a stuffed walrus toy. The next double-page spread features a walrus dad reading to his walrus child, who holds a stuffed stork toy. The text cycles through giraffes, ostriches, snails, bats, dragons, ETs, and backhoes before concluding with a white human child snuggling a stuffed butterfly: "A dad who stretches, / a child snuggled in for the night, / a cuddly friend that comforts / a story that is off to sleep." The author's bright, smiling watercolor creatures, machines, and people are wide-eyed, colorful, and attractive. In each spread, a fanciful nursery scene appears on verso while opposite, a book is depicted harmoniously and whimsically, with equally playful typography.An excellent bedtime read no matter your species. (Picture book. 1-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
