Picture Book Round-Up #18

Another picture book round-up featuring some titles I read for Capitol Choices, a real disappointment, and cats!

Jungle Cat by Andrew Larsen, illustrated by Udayana Lugo

Listen, I love a good cat story! This book has beautiful, full-page illustrations of an indoor cat, Bob, going door to door to meet, and then adventuring outside because he hears it’s a “jungle” out there. It’s about a cat learning maybe he isn’t a jungle cat, but the real star of the show is the illustrations that are gorgeous and full-page and make their apartment building come to life.

Tee Time on the Moon by David A Kelly, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

I’m including this here because while it’s a non-fiction story, it’s very much done in a picture book style. This is all about how Alan Shepard snuck golf balls to the moon to see how far the golf ball would go when he hit it. It’s pretty accessible space science in this one—talking generally about the importance of rockets, space suits, rocks on the moon, etc—but it’s also primarily a narrative story leading up to the golf balls being hit! It’s got fun full-page full-color but also very blue illustrations that feel like an old Apollo tape come to life, but I can see this being really successful with some elementary school kids.

Pigs Can’t Look Up by Vincent D’Onofrio

Not quite wordless, but very short—this is a picture book about a tween girl (she appears to me, at least) and her pet pig. When she realizes the pig can’t look up and see the stars, she devises a scheme to use the farm tools around them to help the pig see the stars, an act of kindness she would love to be repeated on her. It’s a sweet, simple tale, and it might be a bit too “idea” based for a really young reader, but it’s a pretty book with BIG words.

Mama’s Sleeping Scarf by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, writing as Nwa Grace-James, and illustrated by Joelle Avelino

A little girl spends the day playing with her bunny and her mother’s sleeping scarf in this vibrantly, colorfully illsutrated picture book that frankly, I was expecting more from. It’s incredibly wordy for how little punch it packs—Chino as a character is cute, and her playing wiht her mother’s hair scarf is nice, but it’s not quite imaginative enough, and it doesn’t quite look at the culutral impact of the scarf, and I just wanted more. There’s a bunny with a “secret voice” throughout and conversations about vegetables but it’s all just….taking up space and never really selling the story. I wanted more from this!

I Want to Be Spaghetti by Kiera Wright-Ruiz, illustrated by Claudia Lam

Have you ever imagined yourself inside the body-aware mind of a pack of ramen noodles? Well, then look no further than I Want to Be Spaghetti, a picture book that probably would have been a cuter board book, where a grocery store pack of ramen noodles dreams of being the famous spaghetti, but once he is made into ramen (with all the accoutrements) learns that he’s special after all. It is far too long and pedantic for the ideal audience that wouldn’t roll their eyes, but do with that what you will.