Review by New York Times Review
Little yellow bird lost his favorite tail feather ... and flew higher than he ever had before. Illustrations from "A Good Day." IT should be said: Kevin Henkes is a genius. Not that he needs me to point this out. And not that it will be news to the many fans of his 37 books or the judges who have made him the rare author-illustrator to have received both a Caldedcott Medal (the picture-book prize) and a Newbery Honor (the runner-up children's fiction prize). And yet he isn't quite the household name that Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak are, though he should be. Henkes, who is 46, won his Caldecott two years ago for "Kitten's First Full Moon," a book for very young children about a white kitten who mistakes the moon for a big, unusually bright bowl of milk and then does her best to get a drink. The illustrations were richly textured, black-and-white, charcoal-y drawings that represented a change of pace for Henkes, who normally works with scratchy lines and a full, cheerful palette. (His style is very much his own, but he has said in interviews that as a boy he loved Garth Williams, and some of Williams's sweet spirit can be seen in Henkes's work.) "Kitten's First Full Moon" is a charming, wonderful book, but winning a Caldecott for it was like Martin Scorsese finally nabbing his Oscar for "The Departed," which, while it's a fun, smart, thoroughly entertaining movie, isn't "GoodFellas" or "Raging Bull" or "The King of Comedy." And "Kitten's First Full Moon" isn't "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse" or "Chester's Way" or "Chrysanthemum," which are more for the 4- to 8-year-old crowd and number among the most acute social comedies for children this side of Beverly Cleary. Ironically, given that he won the big prize for a cat story, Henkes's signature picture books are about mice - kid mice subject to the same passions and anxieties human children are, which Henkes seems to recall with more clarity than do most adults. Possibly this is because so much of childhood is spent making mountains out of molehills, or at least that's what adults, with our broader perspectives and more modulated serotonin levels, like to call it. Henkes's gift, or one of them, is that he retains a keen understanding of what those molehills look and feel like when you're small and powerless and everything around you is fresh, electric and, for the most part, inexplicable. Certainly, Henkes has written his share of books on the familiar hot-button topics -new siblings, first days of school, dead grandparents. But his best stories wander into more revelatory corners. Take "Chrysanthemum," which is about a girl mouse, the title character, who finds her name a great source of pride, delight and even solace, a signifier of the specialness we all hope we possess: "She loved the way it sounded when her mother woke her up. She loved the way it sounded when her father called her for dinner. And she loved the way it sounded when she whispered it to herself in the bathroom mirror. Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum." What a passage! There's so much going on and in so few words - the comfort of her parents' care, the delicious, almost illicit awakening to her own individuality, the beauty of that repeated word. That is what it's like to be a little kid, isn't it, grokking out on your own name. Which is all to the good until poor Chrysanthemum starts school, where she discovers that an uncommon, polysyllabic name makes easy sport for nasty alpha girls: a sign of grace becomes a curse. Fortunately, salvation finds Chrysanthemum in the form of a charismatic music teacher, Mrs. Twinkle, who holds the class rapt and whose first name, as it happens, is Delphinium. Suddenly flower names are all the rage and Chrysanthemum is seen skipping home to the accompaniment of a rainbow that for once in children's literature feels earned rather than gratuitous. Oh, I suppose you could say the book holds some moral about diversity, but "Chrysanthemum" transcends utility. Henkes's best books are good for you the way art is good for you, as opposed to the way right-thinking lesson plans are. Speaking of which, where so many children's book writers pass off their teacher characters as buffoons or drones, Henkes's teachers, rightly, are like gods come down to earth, objects of fascination and powerful pre-sexual crushes. (That's how I remember elementary school, anyway. Miss Farnum, are you reading this?) That is the crux of his best-loved book, "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse," starring his most enduring and excitable character. (Lilly is also the heroine of "Julius, the Baby of the World" and "Lilly's Big Day," as well as a key supporting player in "Chester's Way." It is a tribute to Henkes that she and her famous red boots haven't been merchandised past the point of ubiquity or made into a noisy movie with booger jokes.) In "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse," the object of her affection is Mr. Slinger. "Mr. Slinger was as sharp as a tack. He wore artistic shirts. He wore glasses on a chain around his neck. And he wore a different colored tie for each day of the week. 'Wow,' said Lilly. That was just about all she could say. 'Wow.' " Again, what a passage. The specificity of details, the knowledge that something like a different colored tie for each day of the week can dominate a child's landscape and command amazement beyond words - yes, wow. Lilly being who she is, she goes on to test the boundaries of her relationship with Mr. Slinger in a story that, among other things, ends up a funny but authentic exploration of shame, which, let's face it, is as ineradicable a part of childhood as commercials. AS I hope the above passages demonstrate, Henkes has a superb sense of rhythm, which, for picture-book authors, may be even more essential than empathy and wit. He makes nice use of it in his new book, "A Good Day," which I've put off mentioning until now because, frankly, I don't have all that much to say about it beyond that it is a masterpiece, an almost perfect picture book. It was written for the "Kitten's First Full Moon" crowd and graced with similarly bold, though this time colorful, illustrations. Like a great Japanese meal, it is a marvel of deceptive simplicity. Brilliantly, the text begins with a curveball: "It was a bad day. ..." The story - at just 118 words it is really more a poem - concerns a little yellow bird, a little white dog, a little orange fox and a little brown squirrel who, as we meet them, are indeed having a difficult time of it. Rest assured that things eventually look up. Better yet, the story ends with a twist that, I think, will be enormously satisfying to little kids and may evoke unexpectedly powerful, protective feelings in their parents. At least it did in me. I'll admit: Henkes's lovely story made me cry a little. 'A Good Day' is an almost perfect picture book. Brilliantly, it begins with a curveball: 'It was a bad day.' Bruce Handy is a writer and deputy editor at Vanity Fair.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
Playfully contradicting the title, Henke's latest picture book begins with the words It was a bad day. Each of the next four spreads explains why: Little yellow bird lost his favorite tail feather. / Little white dog got her leash all tangled up in the fence. / Little orange fox couldn't find his mother. / And little brown squirrel dropped her nut. Then the tone shifts, and there's a happy reversal for each of the four animals, leading to the book's ending--when a little girl picks up the bird's feather, tucks it behind her ear, and calls to her mother, What a good day! From the reversals and the perfectly chosen words to the spirit of hope that bubbles to the surface, this story works well in every way. As precise, unaffected, and easy for a young child to understand as the text, the illustrations feature forms cleanly defined with thick black lines and brightened with watercolors. The final picture brings every story element back home in a visually and emotionally satisfying resolution. A simple picture book, expertly tuned to the emotions and imaginations of children. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Henkes's latest combines the thick black line of his Caldecott Medal-winning Kitten's First Full Moon with the vivid palette of his mouse books to showcase a soothing story about turning lemons into lemonade. Four animals-a sun-yellow bird, a white terrier, an orange fox and a brown squirrel-face small disappointments that threaten to ruin their moods. The bird loses a prized tail feather, the dog tangles his leash around the fence, the fox has lost sight of his mother, and a meaty acorn plummets out of squirrel's grasp. But before even a hint of gloom can settle over an otherwise sunny day, Henkes briskly reverses gears and reveals these momentary losses-of self, freedom, love and food-as gains. The skillful circularity of this simple tale is capped by a nameless barefoot girl who finds the bird's "perfect yellow feather" and jauntily tucks it behind one ear. "Mama! What a good day!" she cries, running into the house in a wide angle shot that shows each of the story's other creatures at home in her front yard. A perfectly pleasing parable for the lap-reading crowd, who will find reassurance in the way each animal conquers an obstacle and finds his or her reward. All ages. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Employing the thick lines and uncluttered illustrations reminiscent of his work in Kitten's First Full Moon (Greenwillow, 2004), Henkes tells the story of four creatures who start out having a bad day. A bird loses his favorite feather, a dog gets her leash tangled in a fence, a fox loses his mother, and a squirrel drops her nut. But then, the squirrel finds an even bigger nut, the fox is reunited with his mother, the dog frees her leash, and the bird discovers he can fly higher than ever, even without his feather. The animals' triumphant expressions and perky postures, in sharp contrast to their former dejected demeanors, bear witness to the fact that the bad day has turned out to be a good one after all. In a surprising twist, a young girl finds the bird's feather, "tuck[s] it behind her ear," and runs to her mother shouting, "What a good day!" A reprise of all four creatures in the last scene as the excited child seeks out her parent is the perfect conclusion. Full-page, pastel-hued watercolor-and-ink illustrations appear framed opposite each page of large, brief text. This gentle story affords an opportunity to introduce the very young to ways of dealing with life's small disappointments. A fine choice for the lap set.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT (c) Copyright 2010. 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
(Preschool) After last year's new outing for Lilly (Lilly's Big Day, rev. 3/06), with its many small panels and complex layers of emotion, Henkes returns to the style of his Caldecott-winning Kitten's First Full Moon (rev. 5/04) for a picture book of graceful simplicity. At the beginning, each of four animals is having a bad day: ""Little yellow bird lost his favorite tail feather. Little white dog got her leash all tangled up in the fence. Little orange fox couldn't find his mother. And little brown squirrel dropped her nut."" But then each problem is resolved (""little brown squirrel found the biggest nut ever"")-and the little girl who finds yellow bird's lost feather is overjoyed: ""What a good day!"" With a remarkable economy of words-a little over one hundred in all-Henkes creates a story that preschoolers will find deeply satisfying. And just as the story includes a lot of repetition, the art repeats the same shades of orange, pink, yellow, green, blue, violet, and brown, showing the palette in stripes at the beginning of each section. Children can then look for the colors in each watercolor-and-ink picture, and may even notice sophisticated elements of the art such as the yellow shading on the clouds that echoes little yellow bird's coloring. As always, Henkes's illustrations also speak volumes through simple details, managing to express pure joy in just the arched shape of an eye or the angle of an ear. Set on thick, creamy pages with a neat square shape, A Good Day is the rare example of near-perfection in a picture book. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
What makes a good day good? This deceptively simple work opens with calamity: Little yellow bird has lost his favorite tail feather; little white dog's leash has gotten tangled up in the fence; little orange fox has lost his mother; and little brown squirrel has dropped her nut. "But then . . . " The ellipsis has magic in it, turning all these bad days into good. Each creature's turnaround unfolds in reverse order, small shifts in behavior and attitude making the change. Henkes uses the bold lines and serene compositions that were the hallmark of his Caldecott Medal-winning Kitten's First Full Moon (2004), adding sunny watercolors for an appropriately cheery whole. The full-page illustrations, framed in the same brown ink that delineates each animal, appear opposite the minimal text, allowing the child reader to absorb each scene in its entirety with the turn of a page. Rounding out the pleasing circularity of events is a little girl's happy discovery of little yellow bird's feather: "Mama! What a good day!" A glorious celebration of the simple joys of childhood. (Picture book. 2-5) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
