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THE LIGHT INSIDE

Name: THE LIGHT INSIDE
Author: Dan Misdea
ISBN: 9780593521625

by Dan Misdea ; illustrated by Dan Misdea ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 2023

Appealing, for Halloween or anytime.

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Cartoonist Misdea constructs a quest replete with Halloween motifs in this nearly wordless, picture book–graphic novel hybrid.

Troubled at bedtime by imagined scary beings—a skeleton, a green-skinned witch, a ghost, and even more monsters under the bed—a personified little jack-o’-lantern finds comfort with a treasured toy mouse. Next day, a whooshing wind separates the protagonist from the toy, engendering a seek-and-follow adventure. The Jack-child spies a black, fanged cat with the pilfered toy and pursues the feline in a motorboat across a river where a giant octopus makes its home. Reaching land, the child reunites a skull with its bones. The protagonist tucks the skull under their arm like a football and runs toward the skeleton with it; comically, the skeleton repays the favor in kind, kicking the Jack-child into the air for a temporary flight with a squad of ghosts. Landing in a cauldron, our hero finds a witch bawling disconsolately over a flyer for a lost cat. Realizing that the missing feline is also the thief, the Jack-child’s off again to put things right. Misdea’s narrative can be read as a child’s dream or a hero’s fulsome adventure. Featuring a muted palette of charcoal gray with orange, yellow, and blue tints, this debut’s round-edged panels compress zigzagging emotions into an adroitly constructed tale using classic folkloric tropes. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Appealing, for Halloween or anytime. (Picture book/graphic fiction hybrid. 3-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023

ISBN: 9780593521625

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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HOW TO CATCH THE EASTER BUNNY

From the How To Catch… series

by Adam Wallace ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2017

This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.

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The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.

The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.

This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)