Review by Booklist Review
Two young friends meet at a park. One, chonky and white, presents a grape. "Is this a grape? It is shaped like a grape." The other, confounded and East Asian, answers, "Of course. Every grape is shaped like a grape." The first then makes a grape pun. This pattern then repeats, delightfully, in different locations with different subjects. Instead of grape-shaped grapes, the pair observe box-shaped, balloon-shaped, and beehive-shaped grapes and so on. The absurdity escalates as they go, with each entry punctuated by a wonderfully terrible grape pun. It's a silly book--in the best way--and it's a subtly smart book, too. Readers will be forced to consider what makes a grape a grape and whether or not it's fair to apply those characteristics to other objects. It's a lesson in perspective and wordplay, in the flexibility of language beyond simple puns, that is effective and poetic. Tran's illustrations enhance the happy-go-lucky tone with incredibly inviting characters and colorful settings. A nice note on friendship puts a bow on this entertaining exercise.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
When two kids meet up at a park, all-dialogue text by Heim (Hello, Tree) establishes almost immediately that one is on some kind of wordplay-fueled kick, insisting that everything they see is "grape." "Oh my!" exclaims the child, portrayed with spectacles and a cloud of yellow hair; "This grape is shaped like a balloon." When their friend, depicted with black hair and a yellow jacket, notes that the object actually is a balloon, the first child demurs: "if it were a balloon, you, see, it would be raisin up the sky." In compositions that range from comic-style panels to full-on spreads, gouache- and colored pencil-textured drawings by Tran (Bijan Always Wins) keep this repartee on the sunny side. But a little wordplay can go a long way, and it takes awhile for the curly headed friend to reveal the root of all the punning ("I wanted you to have a grape day"). While the vine of friendship can be stretched to the breaking point, this offbeat work suggests, its resilience is often graper than we think. Protagonists are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 4--8. Agent (for author and illustrator): Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary. (Oct.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--Two friends share a punny, silly, and sometimes baffling adventure. In the opening pages, a child with a puff of blond hair and oversized blue glasses buys a bunch of grapes and walks to a city park. Another child with a swoosh of black hair and a yellow jacket is waiting on a bench. The friends greet each other, then the blond child holds up the fruit and asserts that the grapes are grape-shaped. The other child agrees, to the delight of the first, who proclaims, "Well then, I guess you could say it is in grape shape." That pun launches the dialogue for the rest of the book. The first child points to a series of other objects they encounter (a box, a balloon, a beehive, a banana, a giraffe) and declares that each is a grape. The second child insists on the facts at first, but becomes increasingly exasperated and eventually worried as the action becomes more unhinged. The blond child, determined to prove that a beehive is a harmless grape, pokes it with a stick. The friends are pursued by a swarm of bees across five pages before finding themselves riding on a giraffe and then dangling from a kite string with few clues about how or why the plot has taken these turns. Tran's digital illustrations are soft and rounded with pastel-like strokes. She uses simple lines for the characters' eyebrows to convey an impressive range of emotions. Both characters have pale skin; the eyes of the blond child are simple, rounded oval marks and the child in the yellow jacket has larger almond-shaped eyes. Unfortunately, the puns are uneven in their placement in the story and the eventual resolution isn't enough to explain the rest of the book. VERDICT Zany energy, expressive illustrations, and a sweet ending can't overcome a somewhat confusing narrative.--Jennifer Costa
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two friends have a silly conversation. A pale-skinned child holding a bunch of grapes meets up with an Asian-presenting friend in a park. "Is this a grape?" asks the first child. "It is shaped like a grape." The second child agrees: "Of course. Every grape is shaped like a grape." The first child replies, "I guess you could say it is in grape shape"--the first of many goofy puns. As the friends encounter a series of objects, the first child insists that each is a grape, or at least grape-shaped. Is that box grape-shaped? No, but what about the balloon inside? "It has to be a grape," says the first child, "because if it were a balloon, you see, it would be raisin up in the sky." The book takes an absurd turn as the pals visit a zoo and climb onto a giraffe (or is it a "tall-shaped grape"?) and then hitch a ride on a purple kite (a "kite-shaped grape"?). "This is a vine mess I have gotten us into," says the first child before the two of them descend. Back at home, the second child asks why the first insisted that everything was a grape. "Because you are my friend…and I wanted you to have a grape day." Tran's artwork relies on dialogue bubbles in borderless panels of varying sizes; textured, soft colors outlined in white create a cozy, charming feel. A quirky tale full of totally grape puns.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
