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juushikaWith great effort do I attempt to catch up on the many books I failed to review in 2025, including: the worst(?) of the autumnal picture books I grabbed in the season.
Title: Stumpkin
Author: Lucy Ruth Cummins
Published: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 50
Total Page Count: 558,070
Text Number: 2099
Read Because: more spooky? picture books, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: I get prickly about picture books that anthropomorphize inanimate objects in uncomfortable/guilt-inspiring ways, and ones that insist the unwanted/unchosen are actually special.* This manages to be both, in a way that almost (no pun intended) stumps me: don't feel sorry that no one bought a flawed pumpkin, because the proprietor carved the unsold merchandise into a jack-o'-lantern himself. Enjoyable art, with sketchy, near monochrome backgrounds and vibrant orange pumpkins. Picture books are largely harmless even if they leave me replete with questions, so it kind of doesn't matter that this one just feels weird; but, thematically, it feels a little weird!
* I get the intent! It's the conservative executions that I don't like, erasing legitimate experiences of otherness.
Title: The Yellow Leaves Are Coming
Author: James Gladstone
Illustrator: François Thisdale
Published: Red Deer Press, 2023
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 558,100
Text Number: 2100
Read Because: okay let's just call this a search for autumnal picture books, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: I think I like this take on a cycle-of-the-seasons picture book, grounded in incredibly specific details, wistfully slipping through time and space. But I barely noticed the text because this is the new ugliest picture book I've ever seen, and it's wildly distracting. See that cover? The "how do face work?" rendered in a kind of uncanny smoothness, disjointed from the environment? This is one of the better panels. Avoid, avoid.
Title: Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn
Author: Kenard Pak
Published: Henry Holt and Company, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 558,130
Text Number: 2101
Read Because: autumnal picture books, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: I never have much to say about non-narrative picture books; they serve a function and this feels like it works, rooting itself in a number of evocative, personal details which make the changing season identifiable and evocative. Beautiful! And ... that's it; nothing to grab or move me.
Title: Stumpkin
Author: Lucy Ruth Cummins
Published: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 50
Total Page Count: 558,070
Text Number: 2099
Read Because: more spooky? picture books, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: I get prickly about picture books that anthropomorphize inanimate objects in uncomfortable/guilt-inspiring ways, and ones that insist the unwanted/unchosen are actually special.* This manages to be both, in a way that almost (no pun intended) stumps me: don't feel sorry that no one bought a flawed pumpkin, because the proprietor carved the unsold merchandise into a jack-o'-lantern himself. Enjoyable art, with sketchy, near monochrome backgrounds and vibrant orange pumpkins. Picture books are largely harmless even if they leave me replete with questions, so it kind of doesn't matter that this one just feels weird; but, thematically, it feels a little weird!
* I get the intent! It's the conservative executions that I don't like, erasing legitimate experiences of otherness.
Title: The Yellow Leaves Are Coming
Author: James Gladstone
Illustrator: François Thisdale
Published: Red Deer Press, 2023
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 558,100
Text Number: 2100
Read Because: okay let's just call this a search for autumnal picture books, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: I think I like this take on a cycle-of-the-seasons picture book, grounded in incredibly specific details, wistfully slipping through time and space. But I barely noticed the text because this is the new ugliest picture book I've ever seen, and it's wildly distracting. See that cover? The "how do face work?" rendered in a kind of uncanny smoothness, disjointed from the environment? This is one of the better panels. Avoid, avoid.
Title: Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn
Author: Kenard Pak
Published: Henry Holt and Company, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 558,130
Text Number: 2101
Read Because: autumnal picture books, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: I never have much to say about non-narrative picture books; they serve a function and this feels like it works, rooting itself in a number of evocative, personal details which make the changing season identifiable and evocative. Beautiful! And ... that's it; nothing to grab or move me.
