Cave Paintings

September 15, 2020
Chair just wants "to be in on the game." Every night before bed, Vivi, a brown-skinned girl with puffy pigtails, and Monkey, a child-sized stuffed animal, play a game. Monkey hides in plain sight under a blanket, Vivi pretends to look everywhere for Monkey, Vivi questions the witnesses: Chair, Plant, Kettle, and Cat. Chair is the only witness who cares about the game. But the role of witness is not enough for Chair. Chair loves Vivi and wants to be more involved. But night after night, Monkey comes out of hiding, and the pair leaves Chair sleepless and jealous. One night, Chair decides that if Monkey needed a bath--say, if some juice were spilled on Monkey--then Chair could take Monkey's place. But the plan backfires. When Monkey doesn't turn up, Vivi only looks harder for Monkey and becomes upset with Chair when Vivi realizes Chair had a hand in the disappearance. But all ends well when Vivi comes to understand Chair's intentions. Vivi is easily seen as a beloved adult, with Chair as a misunderstood, childlike character who just wants some attention, making this story a clever representation of all-too-real feelings of the young. Bright, expressive illustrations add to the chuckleworthy drama. There are some off notes: Plant's falling "in love" with Cat is an odd touch for this age group, and the Monkey-as-peer is rather unsettling both conceptually and visually. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 71.8% of actual size.) Cute concept; readers' mileage may vary. (Picture book. 3-6)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 28, 2020
Tolstikova (Violet and the Woof) writes a closely observed account of someone longing to be noticed. Vivi is a tan-skinned girl who engages in nightly sessions of hide-and-seek with her stuffed yellow monkey. In Tolstikova’s world, inanimate domestic objects can talk—they’re all portrayed in bright, loose art—and the child’s playful quizzing while sporting a deerstalker cap is part of her hide-and-seek ritual: “Have you seen Monkey?” she asks Cat, Chair, Kettle, and Plant. One night bright red Chair, longing to be the object Vivi hunts for, intentionally spills a drink all over Monkey, who has to be laundered: “Maybe tonight Vivi will look for ME!” Chair thinks, hopes high. Though Vivi is temporarily fooled, she becomes outraged when she uncovers the ruse. Readers will feel Chair’s pain as Monkey and Vivi retreat together (“I have so much to tell you,” Vivi croons exclusively). In the end, Vivi has a change of heart, but the story’s real draw is the clash between Tolstikova’s cheery, naïf-style artwork and her mordant portrait of an uncertain soul. Ages 3–7. Agent: Stephen Barr, Writers House.

October 16, 2020

Gr 1-3-In a future in which space travel is the normal way to get around the universe, a young boy embarks on a trip to visit his grandmother on Earth. Waiting at the space port to board while surrounded by all manner of alien creatures, our protagonist's travel anxiety will be familiar to any child who has traveled alone or set off on a new adventure. The variety of aliens (including tentacled beasts with odd-numbered eyeballs, anthropomorphic animals, and spooky humanoids) are fascinating, and worthy of exploration. Amazed at the infinite breadth of space, the boy arrives at his beloved grandmother's Earth, which is part technological wonder as travelers disembark the spacecraft on hoverboards with futuristic architecture in the background, part natural paradise filled with waterfalls and wildlife ripe for exploration and adventure. On one of their adventures, the boy and his grandmother enter a stalactite-filled cave, discovering paleolithic-style art from long ago. The boy contemplates the shadow of his own hand over an ancient imprint, leaving the strong impression that all are connected regardless of the passage of eons or distance across the galaxy. Longtime collaborators Buitrago and Yockteng, like Anthony Browne, are masters at creating seemingly simple tales which, upon closer consideration, conceal sophisticated themes and emotions. This book is no exception, demonstrating that there is both joy to be found in the mundane and wonder to be found in the infinite expanse of the universe. VERDICT A work at once both limitless and grounded, the imaginative illustrations will be especially appealing to lovers of science fiction and fantasy.-Alyssa Annico, Youngstown State Univ., OH

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 2, 2020
The pale-skinned child who narrates this story by previous collaborators Buitrago and Yockteng (Two White Rabbits) isn’t fazed by the trans-galactic spaceship trip he takes in these pages; he does it all the time, “always traveling alone.” At his destination planet, which readers will recognize as Earth, a small saucer flies him straight into the arms of his grandmother. Every spread juxtaposes natural and futuristic elements: in one, the boy and grandmother travel in a glass-domed vehicle to a preserve-like area, where she leads him into a cave full of paintings. A print of a human hand and images of animals impress him, and so does the grandmother’s present of a family heirloom, a box of colored pencils—“They were my grandfather’s, and before that, his grandfather’s.” Making marks on paper has power that eons can’t diminish; en route home, even the four-eyed passenger in the seat behind the protagonist is riveted by his sketching. Yockteng juggles different styles of artwork with ease—magisterial views of whirling galaxies, pen-and-ink-style drawings of the boy’s time with his grandmother, the cave art itself, and childlike sketches on the new pad all offer scope for the imagination. Ages 4–7.