Review by New York Times Review
WITH EACH NEW SEASON of children's books, subjects seem to cluster. Not long ago, a slew of sloth books appeared. Then two blobfish books, in the same month. This year it's picture books that wear their hearts on their sleeves, displaying value statements, as titles, on their jackets. Recently, "Be Kind" and "All Are Welcome" have shared space on a Times best-seller list topped by the similarly didactic but less utopian "We Don't Eat Our Classmates!" Now four new picture books, whose illustrators are among America's best, arrive with almost matching titles: "The Dreamer," "Dreamers," "Imagine!" and "Imagine." Until recently, people who imagined were dreamers, more or less; now "dreamer" has taken on an additional, weighty meaning. Two of these four books contend with the dreams that immigrants harbor, while two just celebrate the liberating imagination that informs both art and science. You might guess which are which, and you'd be wrong. CASE IN POINT: Il Sung Na's THE DREAMER (Chronicle, 52 pp., $16.99; ages 3 to 5) has no political overtones. It's about a green pig whose dream to fly with the birds leads him (after running with feathers clutched in his fists doesn't work) to invent the Wright brothers' biplane. Repeated failures turn around only when he accepts help from quirky animal friends (a great pink elephant!), and they all consult with actual birds - lesson being that success requires cooperation and listening. Not stopping at plane flight, the pig sets sights on the heavens, and in short order lands on the moon in a spaceship, then shares his new knowledge communally, so animals in flying vessels soon crisscross the sky. Somehow, Pig still yearns for bird-dom, and the book ends where it began. I must confess to not quite understanding the story's ending. And the rhythm of its language is unsatisfying. There's a popular rule in picture book writing to delete all words describing anything the pictures show, but a pileup of sentences that leave so much unsaid doesn't sound like storytelling. Still, I love the illustrations. Out of Il Sung Na's brush flow the most wonderful shapes and colors; his designs land on the page as elegant abstractions (beautifully using the white of the page as shape and color), yet what registers most are vivid, personable characters. I hope Pig and friends return in a more fully resolved story, but I'm happy to have spent 52 pages with them, and I think children will be, too. WHILE THE CHARACTERS in Yuyi Morales's DREAMERS (Neal Porter/Holiday House, 40 pp., $16.99; ages 4 to 8) aren't the young immigrant Dreamers currently threatened by the United States government, the commonality is clear. All immigrants arrive with a dream, Morales says in her notes. The narrator of "Dreamers" is the authorillustrator, speaking to her baby son: "I dreamed of you, then you appeared. Together we became Amor - Love - Amor. Resplendent life, you and I." You can see that the writing tends to the florid. The art, too, is big, billowy, digitally collaging together copious poetic details of personal significance (and of varying scrutability). Gorgeous display is one of Morales's strengths, fully deployed in glowing scenes before mother and child cross a bridge into a forbidding world, all brown and gray. Despite their cold welcome, the pair eventually find a place of refuge, then delight and the promise of life and growth. This utopia is the library, filled with illustrated books. "Dreamers" is a paean to libraries, to reading and writing and creativity, a value statement I endorse wholeheartedly. "Dreamers" aims for the glorious and the poetic; it's big, passionate, crammed with detail. My own preference is for passion in smaller doses, with more breathing spaces. One element of detail that is not inscrutable is the inclusion of dozens of actual children's books strewn about this utopian library, tiny tributes to work that changed Morales's life, and a lot of fun to pick out and recognize. RAÚL COLÓN'S IMAGINE! (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, 48 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8) could be seen as surrealist autobiography. It's a follow-up to his award-winning "Draw!," a wordless book that played games with depiction, featuring an artistic boy who draws his way into African wildlife adventures. In "Imagine!," a similar child skateboards from his Brooklyn home to the Museum of Modern Art. There, a character from Matisse's "Jazz" suite steps down from his frame, sets the boy dancing, and the two dancers lure a group of musicians (plus a dog) out of their Picasso, and another musician (plus a lion) down from her Rousseau. Art lover and art form a dancing band that merrily tours New York City (the Statue of Liberty's crown, a ride on the Cyclone, hot dogs from a street vendor) before heading back, jammed hilariously into a taxi. Colón's vibrant tableaus hint at other great art by Seurat or Manet. The story continues: Boy skateboards home, filled with inspiration, and chalks a mural onto the wall of an abandoned building. Late that night his art companions - from the museum, from his mural - float outside the window of this dreamer. This fine book provides not only exposure to art, and an example of art, but also an example of a boy - a boy of color, a boy in America - with a passion for fine art. These are all things that our culture could well stand to see more of. JUAN FELIPE HERRERA and Lauren Castillo's IMAGINE (Candlewick, 32 pp., $16.99; ages 4 to 8) is the perfect complement to "Imagine!": It's about a boy with a passion for words. It's an immigrant story, too, and a poem, pastoral at first: "If I picked chamomile flowers / as a child / in the windy fields and whispered / to their fuzzy faces, / imagine. . . . " On each new spread, a phrase beginning "If I," and ending with the prompt "imagine," carries us through the young boy's move from his rural village to a city, to a school where he will learn English, write stories, sing in front of class. He will fall in love with words, write songs and gradually mature in the pictures - and finally, he will read his poetry atop the steps of the Library of Congress, as the poet laureate of the United States. A question is posed: If he did that. . . . We turn the page, anticipating the word "imagine" that ended each earlier stanza, and are rewarded with "imagine what you could do." It's true: The book's author, Juan Felipe Herrera, is a former United States poet laureate. This "If I could do it, you can do anything" exhortation is standard inspirational speech material, so why did I not find it remotely didactic? Lauren Castillo's perfect illustrations - warm, deftly composed, with the sensual allure of woodcuts (she seems to have combined foam monoprints with ink and digital work) - are so captivating they might on their own overcome a ho-hum story. But this poem is a masterly picture book text: Its precisely chosen words create a world you have to listen to, to think about. When at the end you learn that you were being told this boy's story as a spur to your own potentially amazing one, the surprise and the gratification outweigh any sense of a lesson being taught. PAUL O. ZELINSKY, a Caldecott Medal winner, has written and illustrated many books for children. He is the illustrator of "All of a Kind Family Hanukkah," written by Emily Jenkins, which will be published this fall.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 23, 2019]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Picture books about land animals who want to fly abound, and they often end in failure. In this story by Na (Bird, Balloon, Bear), a mint-green, bird-admiring pig who wants to fly succeeds, eventually. His first flying machine, a sparsely feathered affair, doesn't work, and his second jettisons him. His friends-a pink elephant, a variety of birds-pore over the pig's plans and offer suggestions. "So he listened./ And modified./ Momentum built." His next attempt, a biplane, soars, and so does the rocket that comes after it. Hot air balloons and personal copters soon float among the city buildings as others join in. The pig has created his own zeitgeist, but he continues to be himself-a pig who admires birds. In Na's visual storytelling, expanses of white space give way to populated spreads as the project progresses, and the interplay of colors (the pig's indigo pants and scarlet shoes against the gentle background) add drama. The analysis of the pig's failures, complete with blackboard calculations, contributes to an atmosphere of cool rationality; success requires quiet judgment and hard work, Na suggests. Young aeronauts-and pigs-take note. Ages 3-5. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-"When pigs fly" takes on a whole new meaning in this fable about an aquamarine pig who dreams of flying with the birds he so admires. He studies, gathers materials, and tirelessly experiments. After an Isaac Newton-esque moment, he is hopeful; his friends come to help. He takes their advice to heart and finally creates a flying machine right out of Kitty Hawk. Emboldened, he shoots for the moon in a rocket ship. His friends also take flight-a panda in a hot air balloon, an octopus in a flying saucer, a fox with a jetpack. Still, in the end, sometimes it's nice to just admire the birds. Inspired by the author's own trials and errors in creating children's books, this offering is both whimsical and thought-provoking. The digitally composed ink-and-colored pencil illustrations feature pink elephants and green horses often against cream pages. One spread depicts the pig studying a chalkboard covered with diagrams and formulas; the front endpapers are filled with gray birds flying in different poses. On the back endpapers, observant readers will note the little pig amidst the birds, a feather in each hoof. Use in maker units or as an original modern fable. VERDICT A lighthearted story with a worthy message; perfect for storytime or one-on-one sharing.-Barbara Auerbach, Formerly at New York City Public Schools © Copyright 2018. 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
In this quiet story about perseverance and progress, a pig loves to watch birds fly and dreams of joining them. He ponders, experiments, "modifies," and succeeds in building a flying machine. "The world wanted to join him," and soon the sky is filled with lots of machines. As far as he flies, however, the pig still admires birds. Na's dreamy mixed-media illustrations match the contemplative text. (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
Dreaming of flight, a mint-green pig plans, fails, perseveres, and triumphs."Once, there was a pig who admired birds." Wishing he could fly south with them, this impressively STEM-y fellow gets to work. "There was much to learn. // And gather. / But his first flying machines / fell / flat." Na humorously depicts the pig's elaborate initial diagrams on an enormous board. After many prototypes fail, the pig finds new inspiration, and a trio of animal friends comes to assist. "But even with help, it was not easy. // So he listened. // And modified. / Momentum built." The successful machinelooking like a cross between a biplane and a glider, the pig's red-shoed legs dangling underneathleads him to even bigger aspirations. A later spread even shows him emerging from a rocket on the moon. Back on Earth, the pig's realized dreams ignite a whole city full of animals, who are shown gamboling aloft via balloons, jet packs, rockets, and more. Na's digitally composed ink-and-pencil illustrations contrast soft pastel compositions with starry nightscapes. As the pig continues to dream and observethe last spread ends with the opening linefurther experiments and rich adventures seem inevitable.Na's spare, gentle text, whimsical pictures, and stick-to-it message are sure to engage young readers who've got dreams of their own. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
