Review by New York Times Review
ONE OF MY DAUGHTERS recently asked, "Does my reflection in the mirror have a heart?" Her question, like a koan, kept knocking around my brain for weeks. The oblivious disrupter does that, opening familiar eyes to fresh views, tripping into philosophical challenges. A good picture book can capture this bumbling genius of children and animals, as these four new ones do. They are winning documents of the clumsy, unintended revelation. Badger brothers Tic and Tac are bored in "Laundry Day," by Jessixa Bagley ("Boats for Papa"). They have built a fort, fished, and read all their books forward and backward. Then their mother asks, "Well, would you like to help me hang the laundry?" Their response is enthusiastic, so much so that she's free to slip off to the market while they handle the clothesline. Only one problem. They run out of clean clothes. What follows is an act of exuberant excavation. The boys empty the house of all its contents, sacrificing utility, comfort and convenience to the joy of the clothesline, to the open air. They hang combs, alarm clocks, carrots and checkerboards, apple cores, roller skates, LPs, plungers and paintings. The vibrant array of objects is matched by the book's brilliant color and the moments of delightful minutiae present in each illustration. This Marie Kondo-esque meditation on objects and their uses evolves into an exploration of the nature of play and work. On her return, the wise matriarch surrenders to her sons' reinvention of laundry. Why resist? Why hold on to the labors we never wanted in the first place? The boys themselves, freshly bored, imagine the other domestic arenas where their riotous skills might be best put to use. Dinner? "Tidy," another badger book, this one created by Emily Gravett, reminds me of my onetime Brooklyn landlady. Returning home once, I entered the paved-over garden of her home. She spied a bunch of chard peeking out the top of my grocery bag. "Yick," she said. "Green things." "Tidy's" badger, unlike Tic and Tac, is an efficient fellow named Pete. He decides he needs to clean up the forest. Off-color blossoms are pruned while woodland animals are scrubbed. Explosive portraits of nature meet a disciplined hand, reverent of detail. Fallen leaves are bagged in plastic, and ultimately all the trees are removed so that a neat, thick layer of convenient concrete can be poured over all that icky mud. The horror is complete. "This forest is practically perfect," Pete says. It resembles a parking lot. But soon he is tired and hungry and these woods are no longer a poor man's overcoat. There are no bugs or worms to catch for dinner. The door to Pete's cozy burrow is covered in cement. Pete raises a good question about the role of the oblivious disrupter. Where do dumb and discovery meet? Or how does dumb stop being dumb? Most poignantly here, in Pete's brave, sad confession, one I wish we heard more often: "I have made a mistake." Failure is the most tested tool of learning. While some mistakes of environmental destruction might take a bit longer to correct than those in picture books, Gravett leaves her reader content in a messy, happy, blissfully imperfect restored forest, filled with perfectly imperfect creatures. It is in this kind of forest that Paul Meisel's "My Awesome Summer by P. Mantis" picks up, with illustrations that lead a reader into the large happenings of the smallest of worlds. This celebration of nature's strangenesses and wild wonders is narrated by a hungry praying mantis, those creatures of such bright green intensity and surprising camouflage, spotting one can cause a temporary opening in the fabric of a day, a moment of pause in an otherwise hectic, distracted life. Meisel leads his reader through three seasons with this fascinating critter. Along the way, we confront confounding nature. "I'm hungry. Growing so fast!" our narrator says. "I ate one of my brothers. O.K., maybe two." Between multiple (hysterical) acts of cannibalism, our narrator hides like a stick, sheds her skin, tricks predators, and eventually learns how to fly. She is humorously unapologetic - she is who she is, in all her wonder. And, she is hungry. As a reader learns much about this marvelous creature - for example, praying mantises are the only insects that can turn their heads from side to side - it is not hard to begin to wonder: What odd human behaviors might themselves boggle the mind of the majestic praying mantis? We are a curiosity, and we are curious. Why are we here if not to explore the wonder of this world? Even if sometimes we do this by stumbling into and through our explorations. In Jon Agee's "Life on Mars," a young astronaut has made his way to the red planet. The appeal of these pages comes in the juxtaposition of the brightest reds and yellows against a space palette of subdued grays and black. We learn that our astronaut is looking for life and that he is considered "crazy" for doing so. "Nobody believes there is life on Mars. But I do." His conviction in himself is hopeful. He's brought chocolate cupcakes to aid in his search, a bit of bait, a gesture of friendship. But as the drabness of the planet and the critical voices back home overwhelm our hero with self-doubt, he fails to notice he's being followed by a friendly-looking, large red Martian. As disappointment and doubt mount, he misplaces his box of cupcakes and his spaceship. It is in this darkest moment of feeling lost that our young astronaut at last spies a brilliant yellow flower growing in the gray. He is delighted. He has found life. After scaling an oddly shaped red Martian, I mean, mountain, he's reunited with his cupcake box and his spaceship. While he leaves the Martian unmet, we are made hopeful by fresh questions and mysteries about our ultimately unknowable and inexhaustibly interesting universe. Each of these four books invites us to be fearless with our faults and bold in our explorations, and to remember wonder is never withdrawn. Each may also serve to remind some readers of their Samuel Beckett, in case they have somehow forgotten the Irish absurdist's refrain. "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." SAMANTHA HUNT is the author of novels including, most recently, "Mr. Splitfoot."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 1, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
The creator of Boats for Papa (2015) and Before I Leave (2016) tackles here a more mundane problem: boredom. Badgers Tic and Tac have exhausted their usual pursuits and aren't keen to try any of Ma's suggestions. Eventually they agree to hang laundry for their mother while she goes to the market. The boys do a surprisingly good job, but when they complete their task, they decide to also hang the winter clothes, blankets, and every whatnot, bauble, and trinket they can find. Ma returns to find all their worldly possessions on display, and after hanging her sons on the line, the boys gleefully plot how they can next help their mother. Bagley's cheerful pen-and-watercolor illustrations capture the humor and absurdity of the boys' antics, and careful observers will notice the forest animals that assist the boys. Cleverly plotted and skillfully crafted, this humorous story manages to convey both adult and child perspectives. A good choice for one-on-one sharing; make sure to allow time to savor the illustrative details.--Weisman, Kay Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Tic and Tac are badgers, brothers, and bored: the title page is littered with the activities and toys they've exhausted. Ma Badger corrals the boys into helping hang the family's laundry on a clothesline, leaving them to finish while she runs an errand. This mundane task proves so much fun that, in short order, the brothers improvise a clothesline that zigzags through their yard, hanging "everything they could find that wasn't nailed down" on it: clothes, bedding, kitchen utensils, an alarm clock, a bunch of carrots, a checkerboard, a fishbowl, and much more. Ma Badger delivers the punch line for this effervescent comedy sketch, translating "as you sow, so shall you reap" into a fitting punishment. Bagley, who dealt with more somber themes in Boats for Papa and Before I Leave, uses her tidy, detailed rendering style to great comic effect. She stages much of the action along a single plane, letting readers savor the improbable "wash" as it adds up, then pulls back for a birds-eye view so they can admire the full extent of the brothers' mischievous domesticity. Ages 3-6. Agent: Alexandra Penfold, Upstart Crow Literary. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-A wonderfully entertaining, amusing, and beautifully illustrated story, this book is sure to delight a wide audience. Tic and Tac, two rambunctious badgers, are bored. They have done everything there is to do in the world, it seems. Mama Badger suggests that they try hanging up laundry with her. Once they try it, they realize that they love it! So Mama leaves them to finish the chore while she runs out to the store, and then the real fun begins. Tic and Tac decide that laundry is not the only thing that they can hang: Why not books, apple cores, the mailbox, or a yo-yo? Anything can be hung, and the boys exuberantly run around doing so until they have created a huge maze of objects hanging from the line. "They pilfered the pots. They pirated pillows. They looted lampshades and even took the toaster!" The fun stops when Mama comes home and sees the mess, and Tic and Tac quickly learn that they, too, can be hung out to dry. Gorgeous, detailed watercolor illustrations highlight each page and truly bring this tale to life. VERDICT A must-buy for any library, this simple but joyful book will be a hit whether read one-on-one or shared with a group.-Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh © Copyright 2017. 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
This entertaining book opens with two young badgers, Tic and Tac, beset by boredom. They help hang the laundry for their mother, and, when they run out of clothes, hang any random household object they can find. Featuring warm watercolors and attention to detail, Bagley's illustrations give readers plenty to pore over. This story injects a touch of the ridiculous into the mundane. (c) Copyright 2017. 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
The energetic badger boys, Tic and Tac, agree to hang laundry while Ma Badger goes to marketand Ma receives a shock when she returns. If the funny cover art does not draw in readers, the opening page will do the trick. The two young badgers, identical but for their differently colored striped shirts, lie spread-eagled on the grass, expressing a sentiment often heard from children in the middle of a day at home. " I'm bored,' said Tic. Me too,' said Tac." As the tale progresses, Ma Badger, in her gingham dress and white apron, suggests activities, all of which are declined by the jaded youngsters. The art is charming and hilarious, reminiscent at times of both Esphyr Slobodkina and Barbara McClintock. Ma Badger uses her washtub and old-fashioned hand-wringer while the children race around and get underfoot. Ma Badger patiently teaches her progeny how to properly hang wet laundry on the clothesline that extends from tree to tree. Readers will laugh as they learn how Tic and Tac further entertain themselvesand how their oh-so-practical mother deals with the situation. A pretty, outdoor, watercolor landscape provides background for the comically rendered badgers, the "boys" always active, Ma calmly laboring. The text is accessible and expansive fun for young readers: "They pilfered the pots. They pirated pillows." This tale of badger mischief is excellent both as a read-aloud and as a book for beginning readers. (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
