Because Amelia Smiled

Horn Book (September/October, 2012)


What goes around comes around, to excellent global effect: it’s pouring as Amelia runs down the street, holding her smiling parents’ hands as they lark through puddles on comfortably shod feet. Where some kids might grumble at the weather, Amelia’s rain-spattered grin is so contagious that it prompts old Mrs. Higgins to bake cookies for her grandson in Mexico -- who shares them and a song with his class, which inspires one grateful student to become a teacher of dance and make a video that’s shown in faraway England. The good vibes voyage on to Israel, Paris, and more, prompting a marriage, among other happy events, and eventually completing a circuit (via TV) back to New York and Amelia herself. Salutary good humor and a series of related events are both reliable picture book patterns; their up-to-date transmission here, however, is particularly effective, as are Stein’s cheerfully energetic illustrations in pencil, water-soluble crayon, and watercolor. His main characters are scruffy and fascinatingly individual, his settings are exuberant with color and light, and both are sure to elicit smiles in any kind of weather. joanna rudge long

Vampirina Ballerina

Horn Book (September/October, 2012)


It’s a familiar story: a young girl begins dance lessons, works hard, perseveres through doubts and missteps, and eventually makes a successful debut performance. The twist here? She’s a young vampire, taking evening ballet classes. Aside from a few vampire-student-specific tips (watch the fangs; don’t trip on your cape when curtsying to Madame), Pace’s encouraging text reads like an advice book for any young dancer. Pham’s illustrations steal the show, offering plenty of visual jokes for both vampire fans (Vampirina’s spider-lace costume and lack of reflection in the studio mirror) and balletomanes (she poses for a Degas-style painting and wears a "Dancing Queen" T-shirt). The watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations make excellent use of black and, of course, soft ballet pink; two foldout pages highlight Vampirina’s recital with her classmates. Sound advice, good technical form, and correct terminology will help ensure that young ballerinas will, as Madame advises, "always move with your head held high." But the message that passion, dedication, and patience have beautiful results is inspirational for any reader. After all, "it doesn’t matter if you take one giant leap or many tiny steps, as long as you are moving toward your goal." katie bircher

The Hueys in The New Sweater

Booklist starred (May 15, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 18))


Preschool-Grade 1. Jeffers (Stuck, 2011) introduces a whole species of egg-shaped, stick-limbed things called Hueys (think of them as animated personifications of Malvina Reynolds’ little boxes made of ticky-tacky), who were all identical and indistinguishable and just fine with that, thank you very much. Then, in a day that will go down in Huey history, a Huey named Rupert knits himself a lovely orange sweater. As much as he loves his new sweater and wears it everywhere he goes, not everyone is so keen on it: “Didn’t he know that the thing about Hueys was that they were all the same?” But Rupert’s pal Gillespie thinks being different is kind of neat, so he knits himself an identical orange sweater, and all of a sudden the other Hueys think these guys might be onto something. While parents might get the biggest chuckle out of the more restrained bits of humor, the big joke is by no means out of reach for little funny bones: “Before long, they were all different, and no one was the same anymore,” the text reads, floating above a scene of endless Hueys all decked out in spiffy orange sweaters. The spare but adorable artwork makes this picture book work as a quirky diversion, but it doesn’t diminish the understated, deftly delivered lesson for those moments when kids need a nudge to help be themselves, or be OK when everyone else wants to be just like them.

The Quiet Place

Booklist starred (July 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 21))


Grades 1-3. When Isabel moves from Mexico to Michigan with her parents and older brother, she leaves behind a beloved aunt, who has been teaching her English. In a series of letters to “Dear Auntie Lupita,” Isabel practices her new language as she writes about starting school, playing outside after a surprise snowfall, and helping her mother cook for children’s birthday parties. Isabel uses discarded boxes to makes her own cozy “quiet place” of safety and, eventually, creativity. After celebrating her birthday with her family and new friends, Isabel’s happiness shines from the letter she writes. A final foldout spread, showing Isabel and her friends enjoying her now not-so-quiet special place, brims with lively details for children to enjoy. Set in the 1950s, the book contains expressive mixed-media artwork that includes many period elements, while the story is timeless in its depiction of a child slowly adjusting to a new home and a new language. The inventive illustrations, including several wordless spreads, define spaces in a creative variety of ways, from a revealing scene showing Isabel within the broader neighborhood to a more intimate view of the child inside her quiet place. A moving, memorable portrayal of one child’s immigrant experience.

Shiver me Timbers!

Booklist (September 15, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 2))


Grades K-3. “Arrgh, matey, best beware!” Pirates take the stage in Florian’s latest book of short, rhymed verse. Delighting in the colorful vocabulary of pirate lore and the popular image of piracy, these 19 poems focus on topics such as the code of conduct, food, and weapons of piracy. While history plays a role, the book’s overall tone is comical, with an outlook summed up in pithy, playful lines such as “We’re rude, crude dudes with attitudes. / We’re motley and we’re mean,” and “A pirate’s life is topsy-turvy, / Full of strife and rife with scurvy.” Bold ink drawings, digitally brightened with colors, capture the tone of the writing and add their own witty details. With deft wordplay in the verse and droll comedy in the art, the book is fun to read aloud. Despite a good bit of sword waving and some sticking out of tongues, there’s no more violence here than in a production of The Pirates of Penzance.

Penny and Her Doll

Kirkus Reviews starred (August 1, 2012)


Following Penny and Her Song (2012), Henkes delivers an even stronger slice of anthropomorphic mouse life for beginning readers. The story opens with Penny chatting amicably with her mother in the garden. Penny smells the roses while Mama weeds, and then the mailman delivers a package from Gram. Inside is a doll for Penny, with a note reading, "I saw this doll when I was shopping. I thought you would love her. I hope you will." And, she does. The fly in the ointment is Penny's struggle to name the doll. Her parents make suggestions, but none seem right, and they reassure her, "Try not to think too hard...Then maybe a name will come to you." Sure enough, after taking her doll on a tour of the house and then into the garden, the perfect name arises: "[T]his is Rose!" she announces. Henkes always excels at choosing just-right names for his characters (see Chester, Wilson, Lilly, Sheila Rae and, of course, Chrysanthemum and her "absolutely perfect" moniker), so this story seems particularly at home in his oeuvre. The familiarity of Henkes' mouse world, as well as expertly paced and controlled storytelling for new readers, mark this as a new classic, earning Penny a firm place alongside the not-so-creatively-named Frog, Toad, Little Bear and that celebrated Cat in the Hat. A doll of a beginning reader. (Early reader. 5-7)

Boy + Bot

Booklist starred (April 1, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 15))


Preschool-Grade 1. Is any love greater than that between a boy and his robot? While picking pinecones, a boy meets a bright-red, rocket-shaped robot and asks, “Want to play? “Affirmative!” the robot responds, and the pair has tons of fun until a rock bumps the robot’s power switch off. Not understanding the bot’s unresponsiveness, the boy wheels him home and begins feeding him applesauce, reading him a story, and crafting a makeshift bed. When the boy’s parents, unaware of a robot behind the door, check on their son, the door bumps the robot’s power switch back on. Not distinguishing the boy’s unresponsiveness as sleep, the robot, in a humorous reversal, fears the boy has malfunctioned and carries him back to his laboratory, where he gives him oil and begins to prepare a new battery—when, just in time, the not-evil-at-all inventor shows up to put things right. The spare text (“Boy! You-are-fixed!”) replicates the steady beats of the simple yet comedic story, while Yaccarino’s expressive, quirky, and humorously geometric gouache illustrations make the boy and robot’s relationship all the more endearing. The final, nearly wordless pages, with snapshots of the friends at play, are priceless.