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Summary
Summary
"It is a very nice day," said Vernon.
Porcupine agreed. "I do not remember a day as nice as this."
"Except for maybe yesterday," offered Skunk.
Vernon, Skunk, and Porcupine are back! The stars of Philip C. Stead's acclaimed Home for Bird have returned in three enchanting new stories, Waiting, Fishing , and Gardening , each brimming with the tenderness and wry humor that made their first appearance such a delight.
Author Notes
Philip C. Stead is the author of the 2011 Caldecott Medal book, A Sick Day for Amos McGee , which was illustrated by his wife, Erin E. Stead. He is the creator of such widely acclaimed books as A Home for Bird , Hello , My Name Is Ruby, Sebastian and the Balloon , and Ideas Are All Around among others. Philip lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Vernon, the thoughtful toad who charmed readers in A Home for Bird, returns with his good friends Skunk and Porcupine. In the first of three stories, Vernon waits for one of the world's slowest forms of transportation (a snail). In the second, the three friends go fishing, but in their own way: "If we see a fish," Porcupine suggests, "maybe we should say hello." In the third, Vernon pines for Bird, and Skunk and Porcupine set out to cheer him up. Stead's expressive, openhearted drawings reveal what Vernon works on when he's not fishing or remembering Bird. Scribbly lines show green leaves hung from old fishing hooks overhead; they're part of Vernon's garden. He creates beauty by foraging for things others have lost or thrown away-red and white fishing bobbers, an old kite. The slow pace, the moments of silence, and the quiet white space in Stead's spreads are an antidote to frenetic busyness. For Vernon, what matters most is kindness, cherishing one's friends, and noticing what other people miss. Ages 4-8. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
This significantly longer follow-up to A Home for Bird includes three short stories instead of just one. Patient toad Vernon gets some unexpected help from a snail, he goes on a nontraditional fishing outing with Skunk and Porcupine, and his two friends cheer him up when he misses Bird. Unfussy mixed-media illustrations perfectly capture Stead's laidback dry wit and lovable, oddball animal characters. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This companion to A Home for Bird (2012) includes three short stories featuring Vernon, a gentle toad and forager of retrieved items. In Waiting, Vernon patiently anticipates Snail, who gives him a ride. Fishing sees Vernon, Skunk, and Porcupine contemplate angling, even though Porcupine has many unvoiced concerns about this pastime. And, in Gardening, Vernon visits the river and the forest and watches clouds in an attempt to feel closer to his friend Bird. Stead's mixed-media artwork, in gouache, crayon, charcoal, and chalk, uses simple forms, executed in thick, messy strokes such as a child might make while coloring. Greens and earth tones predominate, accented in red (mostly for found objects such as an apple or a fishing bobber). Expressive faces convey the stories' range of emotions, including worry, curiosity, loneliness, and joy. As in the earlier book, Vernon shines as a sensitive yet always upbeat hero. In the final vignette, he faithfully goes about tending his garden, even as he struggles with missing Bird. Later, Skunk and Porcupine follow Vernon's example, adding their own special touches to the garden to help their friend smile again. Those able to slow their pace sufficiently to experience the compassionate Vernon and his kindhearted friends will be amply rewarded.--Weisman, Kay Copyright 2018 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
SHORT STORIES are for everyone, even the wee. Three new collections - very different from one another in looks and tone - offer distinct pleasures for young readers. One's soothing; one's sly; and one's downright uproarious. VERNON IS ON HIS WAY (ROARING BROOK, 64 PR, $19.99; AGES 4 TO 8), by Philip C. Stead, is the sweetest and gentlest of the three. The subtitle, "Small Stories," is fitting; the focus is on mood, on reflection, on the moments when the natural world seems kind and safe. Stead's use of charcoal, pastel and crayon adds to the quiet, tender feeling that suffuses the collection. You may remember Vernon, a toad, from Stead's "A Home for Bird." In it, Vernon tries hard to entertain a new blue avian friend, unaware that Bird is not sentient but rather a wooden cuckoo fallen from a clock. What makes the story touching as well as funny is that Vernon takes Bird's silence for homesickness and tries desperately to make him happy. Stead's new collection is similarly kindhearted. In the first of the three stories, "Waiting," Vernon, well, waits. Like Vladimir and Estragon, he "waits, and waits, and waits." Stead deploys a huge amount of white space and a long minimalist line of green horizon to show just how all-consuming waiting can be. Preschoolers will relate. When the wait finally ends, it's with an incongruous, giggle-eliciting surprise. The second story, "Fishing," centers on Vernon's pal Porcupine and his anxiety about not knowing how to fish. One whole page is filled with an oversize, hunched, anxious Porcupine, little paws seeming to flex and clench with existential dread. ("I am ruining everything," he thinks, with the hopeless, neurotic intensity some adults would prefer to deny that small children feel.) But fishing turns out not to mean what we think it means, and when a fish leaps from the pond, surrounded by pussy willows and framed by a huge sun, the entire spread seems to explode with exuberant, ebullient color and humor. And in the final story, "Gardening," Vernon tries to remember his favorite things about his old friend Bird. "But sometimes," he thinks, "my memories are not so easy to remember." Porcupine and Skunk try to cheer him up with gifts of detritus from around the woods and pond - an old shoe, a red and white fishing bob, some acorns. They want to make Vernon happy. The poetic allusions in the last story to visual and rhetorical references earlier in the collection (and to the earlier Vernon book, though you needn't have read that one to appreciate this one) feel careful and lovely. The joys of this book are writ small, but they feel big. By contrast, Sergio Ruzzier's fox & CHICK: THE PARTY AND OTHER STORIES (CHRONICLE, 56 PR, $14.99; AGES 5 TO 8) shows that friendship can be challenging as well as comforting. Ruzzier, the author of picture books including "This Is Not a Picture Book!," has created a pair who seem to have nothing in common. Chick is a wacky little narcissist ping-ponging around the page; Fox is the fond, amused straight man. Though the book is recommended for roughly the same ages as "Vernon Is on His Way," it's a much easier book for newly independent readers to enjoy solo, and I suspect they'll read it again and again. The minimal, deadpan text is entirely written in white-space-framed panels with word-balloon dialogue, and like Ruzzier's clean, deceptively simple visual style, it goes down easy. In the first story, Chick throws a wild pool party in Fox's bathroom (oh, look, there's a mole passed out in the corner) and it becomes clear that Fox and Chick have different interpretations of what "may I use your bathroom?" means. In the second story, Chick asks why Fox doesn't follow a typical vulpine diet and chicksplains to him what proper foxes eat. (He intones, "They're supposed to eat squirrels ... lizards ... and little birds.") Three almost identical panels show the two friends chatting against a blue and white sky, but in the fourth panel, as Chick realizes what he's just said (and gulps "uh-oh"), Chick is alone, oversize, in a frameless box of white space. In the next full-page spread, all the ambient details are back as Chick flees, screaming. It's a visually hilarious one-two punch, a perfect use of the comics medium. Two pages later, the friends share a delicious vegetarian soup. (Whew.) In the third story, persnickety Chick finds it difficult to be an artist's model. Fox, as ever, is imperturbable. It's a subtle lesson, couched in humor: We can be friends with people who aren't just like us. And we can devour stories about people whose lives are very different from ours. AKISSI: TALES OF MISCHIEF (FLYING EYE, 188 pr, $14.99; ages io and up), by Marguerite Abouet, illustrated by Mathieu Sapin, feels new, daring, exciting and singular. Translated from French, it's a collection of 21 sixpage comics about a little girl in Ivory Coast, and it is utterly unputdownable. Based on Abouet's childhood memories of growing up in the port town of Abidjan (which also formed the basis of her awardwinning "Aya of Yop City" books for older readers, which have been translated into 15 languages), the rapid-fire, action-packed tales are wild and antic. The colors are electrie - purples, oranges, turquoises and bright yellows. Akissi has dark brown skin, beaded hair and a round Charlie Brown head ("You, with your big empty head, you're gonna get it!" her brother Fofana says through gritted teeth after she tattles on him. "It's you whose head looks like a huge pot!" she yells back, fleeing from him down a bright orange street with curly action lines shooting out behind her.) Akissi kidnaps a baby, gets a pet marmoset and deliberately contracts lice in an attempt to get her mom to cut off all her hair and avoid the pain of getting twists or braids. She plays middle-of-the-night tricks (pee is involved), behaves appallingly in church, and sneaks into a movie. The sense of place is powerful. In a bravura extended sequence, Akissi and her cousins visit her Nan's distant village. They take a shared minibus (with "LET'S DRIVE FAST, WE'RE IN A HURRY" painted on the side), bouncing along dirt roads with a huge-eyed, bewildered sheep tied to the roof atop a giant pile of luggage. There's an accident, and suitcases and pots and sheep go flying (the frame depicting the upside-down, freaked-out animal saying "baaa" as it flies over a cliff made me laugh out loud), but Akissi saves the day. Scary things happen: rogue coconuts, burning hair, poisonous snakes. But there's also cuddling with bunnies. I'd give "Akissi" to kids 10 and up, though the official publisher's recommendation skews younger. The type is perhaps forbiddingly tight, the illustrations are small and detailed, and the humor and situations may shock American kids with delicate sensibilities. (Akissi gets worms, which shoot out of more than one orifice after treatment.) That said, my 13-year-old kept stealing the book from my desk; whenever I heard her howling with laughter, I knew what she was reading. That's another great thing about short stories: There's something for everyone. MARJORIE INGALL is a columnist for Tablet magazine and the author of "Mamaleh Knows Best."
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Vernon, the bighearted little toad from A Home for Bird, is back in this series of very short tales. As in most of Stead's work, this is a quiet book in which seemingly mundane activities-like waiting, going fishing, or missing a friend-offer young readers a mirror for their big emotions and deep thoughts. Divided into three brief chapters, the book features Vernon and his pals Skunk and Porcupine, as well as a few new friends. In "Waiting," Vernon sits longingly on a shell. What he's waiting for is not clear, but when the shell turns out to be a snail, the toad is "on his way." In "Fishing," Porcupine is anxious because he's never fished before; he doesn't want to ruin his friends' good time. In the end, all turns out well-and, in a laugh-out-loud surprise, "fishing" entails shouting an enthusiastic "HELLO!" at a passing fish. In "Gardening," Vernon is despondent. He hasn't seen his friend Bird in a long time, and sometimes "memories are not so easy to remember." Though Bird does not appear, Porcupine and Skunk work hard to cheer up their pal. Stead's world is filled with characters whose empathy, kindness, and calm resolve make them easy to love. Though the drama is subdued, the interior life of his creatures is rich, and the humor, though subtle, delights. The mixed-media art, with childlike crayon textures and colorful pastel smudges, depicts the characters with soulful expressions and charming vulnerability. VERDICT This heartwarming collection is perfect for one-on-one reading. Share with fans of Laura Vaccaro Seeger's "Bear and Dog" and Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad" books.-Kiera -Parrott, School Library Journal © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The compassionate toad who stole readers' hearts in A Home for Bird (2012) now appears in a long-form picture book with three chapters.In "Waiting," the amphibian sits atop a snail shell, a flower his only companion. An undecorated white background conveys the empty boredom surrounding this activitya sentiment to which children will relate. Unexpectedly, the snail eventually emerges and carries Vernon into the next story. His forest world, executed in gouache, crayon, pastel, and charcoal, feels familiar. The pages are framed with loose green loops of vegetation and chalky blue strokes of sky. Stead has a gift for expressing the emotions and dialogue that accompany the uncertainties of childhoodthose anxious, wanting-to-be-right-but-not-quite-knowing-the-rules moments. In "Fishing," Skunk and Porcupine join their friend, and although Porcupine feels inadequate because he doesn't know how to fish, in reality none of them do. At the climax, lit by a sunset, the trio invents their own version of the sport; listeners feel a combination of in-the-know prideand relief. "Gardening" finds Vernon missing Bird: "But sometimesmy memories are not so easy to remember." Working, resting, seeking out things Bird loved, and thoughtful friends are factors in his renewal.Cleverly bringing the narrative full circle, Stead has crafted a caring community where sadness is mitigated by quiet kindnesses and an unhurried joy in naturea fruitful model. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
