Review_CHILDREN’S
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ; OCTOBER 30, 2017 78
A girl’s unruly hair attracts the attention of animals looking for a cozy nest in Freeman’s playful
picture book (reviewed on this page).
Picture Books
Ducks Away!
Mem Fox, illus. by Judy Horacek. Scholastic
Press, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-338-18566-9
The team behind Where Is the Green
Sheep? and other titles uses its creative
alchemy to turn a simple counting story
into a funny page-turner. A yellow mother
duck is crossing a bridge with her five
ducklings; the nicely distilled setting
consists of an arc of gray stones with a
mottled purple-blue stripe of water
underneath. As soon as the family reaches
the apex of the bridge, the ducklings start
dropping down into the water one by
one—some by choice, some by accident.
They take to their new situation like,
well, ducks to water, but Mother Duck is
in a tizzy until her brood coaxes her off the
bridge (“Go with the flow! Five, four,
three... two, one, GO!”) and into the water
with them. The slightly scattered text
(“Actually it was two little ducks. No, it
was three little ducks. Wait! It was four
little ducks”) will draw in readers from
the first page, and they’ll admire how the
toylike ducklings, despite their intense
dot eyes and oversize orange bills and feet,
exude a cool-as-a-cucumber attitude.
Ages 3–5. (Jan.)
; While You Are Sleeping
Mariana Ruiz Johnson. Chronicle, $16.99
(36p) ISBN 978-1-4521-6599-8
Painted in brilliant folk-art hues,
Argentinian illustrator Johnson’s word-
less story starts with a view through a
window. Inside, a mother reads to her
golden-haired son, then tiptoes away after
he falls asleep. Now the view pulls back:
the boy’s parents share wine downstairs, a
girl cycles by, and a jaguar and a deer play
music together on a nearby rooftop. The
view again widens to reveal more build-
ings—the city night is alive with activity,
and the two brightly colored animals are
joined by four more. (Observant readers
may have spotted them earlier in the
story.) They strike out across a placid sea
in a red dugout and head for a primeval
wilderness, where they light torches and
make a bonfire in the dark. At last their
dancing makes the bonfire rise up into the
sky: it’s the morning sun. Back in the city,
the boy awakens. The story’s easy slide
from reality to myth and back again
recalls the magical realism of authors like
García Márquez—and more stories are
hinted at in the windows that fill the boy’s
neighborhood. Ages 3–5. (Jan.)
; Elmore
Holly Hobbie. Random House, 17.99 (40p)
ISBN 978-1-5247-1863-3
“Friends Wanted” reads the sign that
Elmore, a self-sufficient but solitary porcupine, posts in the woods. There are no
takers—everyone is scared of his quills.
“I’m your friend,” says his elderly uncle.
“That’s different,” replies Elmore in an
exchange that should resonate with any
children familiar with the attempted con-
solations of adults. When Elmore’s uncle
insists that his quills are “beautiful” and
define who he is, Elmore is inspired. He
realizes that his “troublesome quills”
make great pens, and in what Hobbie (A
Cat Named Swan) wryly refers to as “the
quill event,” he gives away bundles of
them to everyone in the forest. Elmore is
neither needy nor pathetic; in fact, he
emphasizes that the quills are “100% real
porcupine quills” and reminds the other
animals, “Everyone loves getting a note
from a friend.” After having fun writing
with Elmore’s once-feared quills, the ani-
mals see him in a new way. Hobbie’s story
is proffered with a light touch, a full
heart, breezily charming artwork, and an
ingenious protagonist. And her lesson
never loses its profundity: being appreci-
ated by others starts with appreciating
oneself. Ages 3–7. (Jan.)
Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.’s Dream and You
Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by James E.
Ransome. Bloomsbury, $17.99 (40p)
ISBN 978-0-8027-2368-0
Weatherford (In Your Hands) and
Ransome ( The Nutcracker in Harlem) show
readers how lessons from the life of Martin
Luther King Jr., translated into simple
maxims, remain relevant. Alternating
between decisive moments in King’s life
and a contemporary classroom preparing
to celebrate the holiday honoring him,
Weatherford assures readers, “You can be
a King.” One spread shows King giving
his historic speech at the Lincoln
Memorial (“You can be a King. Have a
dream. Make yours great enough to grow
into”), followed by vignettes of a child in
a wheelchair making cupcakes for the celebration. The concept isn’t entirely successful: the classroom scenes, rendered in
a cartoony sketchbook aesthetic against
white backgrounds, feel forced and stagey.
But the historical scenes, painted in
Ransome’s signature thick, saturated
style, are infused with a powerful sense of
narrative. King himself is absent in one of
the most stirring images: an empty bus
during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The green, riderless seats affirm the
King quotation that opens the book:
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” Ages 4–8. Author’s agent:
Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (Jan.)
Natalie’s Hair Was Wild!
Laura Freeman. Clarion, $16.99 (32p)
ISBN 978-1-328-66195-1
Natalie is an African-American girl
whose natural hair “couldn’t be tamed by
a comb or a pick or restrained by barrettes
or a clip.” She loves its wildness, but so do
a zoo’s worth of animals, who gradually
take up residence in her tresses (“An
ostrich thought it was the perfect place to
hide his face”). As Natalie’s hair grows
wilder, “Natalie didn’t care” is the book’s
refrain. But eventually she acknowledges
(“for at least a week”) that with great hair
comes at least a little responsibility. In her
first outing as author, illustrator Freeman
Children’s/ YA
