Picture Book Review Rundown: August 2022

Welcome to the Review Rundown, a quick look at a stack of review books all published in the same month. These books all hit the shelves in August 2022.

Our Little Mushroom: A Story of Franz Schubert and His Friends by Emily Arnold McCully

* Review copy courtesy of Margaret K. McElderry Books

Writing: The life of Franz Schubert is condensed to a length that can be read easily in one sitting. I like the way it's told from the point of view of Schubert's childhood friends, as it lends an intimacy to the details.
Illustration: As in many picture books, the illustrations show inaccurate portrayals of how instruments are held and played. Otherwise, McCully does a nice job incorporating period dress and other historical details into her pictures, which have an old-fashioned flavor suited to the text.
Content: This is a nice, straightforward biography of a historical figure whose significance is clear, and it does not seem to have been written in service to any agendas.
Overall: This is a solid biography by a talented author and illustrator that will stay on our shelves.

Action!: How Movies Began by Meghan McCarthy

*Review copy courtesy of Paula Wiseman Books

Writing: Kid-friendly language is broken up into digestible bites in this survey of the early history of motion pictures. I appreciate that the author tells a straight narrative without scattering extra tidbits of text amidst the illustrations. Saving the extra details for the author's note was a wise decision.
Illustrations: The cartoonish bug-eyes of the figures are not my favorite, but there is a ton of information packed into these pictures and every page is engaging. I love the way McCarthy incorporates her renditions of real movie scenes into the book, even if I'm not sure kids will recognize most of the references as readily as their parents.
Content: The book opens with a scene from Saturday Night Fever, which is not a film I would want my elementary age kids watching. It's not really necessary to skip it, it just struck me as an odd choice. It was also a litte bit strange that a book with an otherwise very broad take on history gets very specific about racism in the 1920s. Those moments of the book felt tacked on in service of an agenda that should probably be addressed in its own book. There is nothing in the book I would call truly inappropriate.
Overall: Action! is a well-researched informational book best suited for a middle grade audience.

Wellington's Big Day Out by Steve Small

*Review copy courtesy of Paula Wiseman Books

Writing: Straightforward narrative and believable dialogue between a young elephant, Wellington, and his parents drive this story of a birthday outing. The plot involves Wellington's birthday gift of a jacket just like his father's, which is too big. Wellington and Dad set out to get the suit altered by a tailor, but for reasons that feel a muddled, that doesn't quite end up happening. The strength of this book is in the characterization rather than the plot. I think the message was that kids shouldn't want to grow up too fast, but I didn't feel like we quite got there.
Illustration: These anthropomorphic elephants are charming! It was fun seeing them dress and move through the world like people. I also like that every page has a white background, as it allows the figures' expressions and body language to be the primary focus.
Content: There is nothing objectionable in this book. It's a sweet story about a boy, his dad, and later, his grandpa.
Overall: I have one little boy, and he has four sisters, so books that portray boys and dads doing things together are gold for us. I like that Grandpa also comes into the story. Books that celebrate generations of males are not as common as similar books about female characters.

ABC ROAR by Chieu Anh Urban 

*Review copy courtesy of Little Simon

Writing: Every page in this book has the same structure. A sentences states the letter, the name of an animal beginning with that letter, and an action taken by the animal. There is nothing particularly remarkable about any of these sentences; they are adequate, generic concept book sentences.
Illustration: Each illustration of a letter is recessed in the page so that young children can easily trace their fingers in the shapes. Letters are decorated with the animals referenced in the text. Arrows show children how the letters are to be drawn.
Content: This is simply an animal-themed board book with the added bonus of helping kids learn preliminary writing skills.
Overall: I find this book pretty basic, myself, but my son (2 years 8 months) is a big fan of this one and of 123 Zoom, which is the automobile-themed number-focused companion book. I also appreciate that it's a book with some bulk that stands up to rought toddler handling.

Picture Book Review: Beginning by Shelley Moore Thomas, illustrated by Melissa Castrillon (9/27/22)

Surrounded by whimsical oversized plant life, a dad and his son, the main characters in Beginning, reflect together on how every ending is also the start of something new. Though the setting is the real world, elements of each scene are exaggerated to appear fantastical. These images all build toward the end of the book where there is a dream sequence and Dad encourages his son to imagine what his own future might hold. 

This concept is nothing new, and it would be impossible to top something like First the Egg, but the artwork in this book is very visually striking, and that does elevate the text just a bit beyond its cliched sentiment. There is also something nice about a father/son story. These characters are very loving toward one another, and we see them in a variety of everyday circumstances (including reading together) that will be familiar to little boys spending time with their own fathers. The dad and the boy also meet a girl and her mom partway through the book, and there seems to be a bit of a potential love story between the parents unfolding in the illustrations that the text does not address. 

A gentle, positive story with an important, albeit overdone, sentiment, Beginning would be a good book to read on the first day of school, or during any other time of transition in a child's life. 

I received a review of Beginning from Paula Wiseman Books in exchange for an honest review. 

I Can't Draw by Stephen W. Martin, illustrated by Brian Biggs (10/18/22)

In I Can't Draw written by Stephen W. Martin and illustrated by Brian Biggs, Eugene is the best artist in school, and Max would love to be able to draw like him. When Max asks Eugene to teach him, however, he finds that his own style - involving space, robots, and lasers - keeps interrupting his lessons. Finally, Max realizes that it's not that he can't draw. It's just that he needs to embrace his own talents for what they are. 

This book is a celebration of creativity and it emphasizes the idea that what one individual creates can't be replicated by any other individual because we all have our own styles and abilities. I don't love that Max's style involves a butt joke because that automatically disqualifies the book from staying on our shelves, but otherwise, the light tone of the book and the captions the boys draw for some of their pictures really amused me. I love the way the illustrator incorporates the artwork into the story and even uses it to convey dialogue at some points. 

I think this would be a good read-aloud for an art teacher on the first day of school, or maybe for a library art club or class. Whether kids are great artists or not, there is great fun to be found in creative pursuits, and I appreciate that this book encourages them to opt in for the fun whether art is where their talents ultimately lie or not. 

I received a copy of I Can't Draw from Margaret K. McElderry Books in exchange for an honest review. 

Picture Book Review: The Dark Was Done by Lauren Stringer (9/27/22)

In The Dark was Done, everyone fears the dark and wishes for it to disappear. When it does, though, they realize how much they miss it, and a boy, a poet, a robber, and a gardener go out to find it and bring it back. 

The illustrations in this book provide a strong contrast between the bright yellow of day and the cool blue of night. The figures in the pictures have an ethereal, whimsical quality that contributes to the dreamlike atmosphere of the story. The tale itself reminds me of How the Sun was Brought Back to the Sky, but in reverse. 

Reading this from a Christian perspective, something feels off to me. The presence of the robber, and his desire for the darkness to return so that he can conduct his nefarious business in the shadows, feels like an attempt to normalize evil, or to suggest that we need to embrace evil if we want to have good things. Because darkness is so often a metaphor for sinister things in books, a story where darkness is upheld as a hero feels uncomfortable and problematic. I don't see a problem with teaching kids not to fear the literal dark, or to accept metaphorical darkness as a part of our fallen world, but I don't like the relativistic idea that everything the night sky provides is good just because some of it is. This is a book I will donate without reading it to my kids.

I received a copy of The Dark Was Done from Beach Lane Books in exchange for an honest review.  

New Board Books, August-October 2022

In Dinosnores by Sandra Boynton (Simon & Schuster, 9/27/22), the dinosaurs get ready for bed, then disturb their rabbit neighbor with some very loud snoring. The text and illustrations are both in Sandra Boynton's usual tongue-in-cheek style, with rhyme and wordplay, cartoonish faces and expressive eyes. The onomatopoetic sounds of the snoring dinosaurs make for a great opportunity to ham up a read-aloud, something my dinosaur-loving toddler son especially enjoys. The punchline of the story is not as clever as in some of Boynton's older books, but toddlers won't care. This book, along with the author's Dinosaur Dance, would make a great dino-themed story time, either for a group or just for bedtime. 

I Want That, written by Hannah Eliot and illustrated by Ana Sanfelippo (Little Simon, 10/11/22), is an interactive board book in which the young toddler reader helps a series of babies by figuring out what they want and giving it to them. On each page, an infant expresses a desire for something to eat, or wear, or play with. Young readers can turn a wheel on the side of the page to view the available options, then stop on the item they want to give to the baby. As long as they leave the wheel in place, when they turn the page, they will see the result of their choice. My little girls have all loved taking caring of baby dolls as toddlers, and this book is a perfect extension of that interest. The fact that every option works within the context of the story means that kids have real agency in their contribution and are not just hoping to find the "right" answer. (There is one clear logical answer for most of them,  but the silly options make the story even more fun!) Because the items available to give to the baby are never named in the text, there are also lots of opportunities for parents and caregivers to chat with their children about what they have selected, describing each item and connecting it to their kids' own lives.  I think this is a fabulous concept for a board book. I'd love to see more.

In The Thank You Book written by Danna Smith and illustrated by Juliana Perdomo (Little Simon, 9/6/22), rhyming text explains why and how we might say thank you, not just with words, but also with kind gestures and affectionate touches. The illustrations are brightly colored and populated by diverse figures. There appear to be a couple of same-sex couples, though their interactions with each other are platonic-looking enough that it's not something my kids are likely to notice. Most of the emphasis is on kids learning how to show and accept gratitude to and from each other and the adults in their lives.  When I worked in the library, I liked to do a thank-you-themed story time for Thanksgiving, and this would fit right into that theme, along with Thanks a Lot by Raffi and Thankful by Elaine Vickers. 

Snow by Jane Ormes (Nosy Crow, 8/23/2022) is a lift-the-flap book about animal families who live where it snows. On each page, there are mother and father animals along with their correct names (e.g. a daddy reindeer called a bull, a mommy whale called a cow, etc.) When the young reader lifts the flap, the offspring and its name are revealed. At the end of the book, the four species that appear in the earlier pages come back to introduce the collective noun used to refer to them. This book perfectly stitches together three things my toddlers love: baby animals, flaps, and new words. The illustrations strike a good balance between child-friendly and scientifically accurate. The pinks, blues, and greens of the pictures maintain a cool wintry feeling throughout the book which captures the animals' climate in a visceral way. A book like this is a great way to sneak some nonfiction into your story time stack!