It’s a fictionalized picture book biography about a woman who woman who got civically involved in New York City in the 1940s and 50s to protest city planners who were not taking the needs of the local community people into their plans. One of the weaknesses of the book, if the target audience is young children (the typical audience for picture books), is that it depends too much on clues in the illustrations to convey some of the context, clues that young children are unlikely to pick up on. Never during the text of the story does the author ever indicate the time period in which the story is taking place. I was able to get a general sense from the clothes people were wearing in the illustrations, but kids wouldn’t necessarily recognize those clues.

There’s no point to this book, no story. A family adopts a puppy and they play in the park with their puppy. The reader just keeps waiting for the climax, the where-is-this-going? But it never goes anywhere. There’s a label on the front declaring that proceeds for the book will be donated to pediatric cancer research, so I thought it might have something to do with cancer. It didn’t.

The city pigeons are feeling unappreciated. They get together and bemoan how the other birds, such as the robin and the cardinals, get people to oooh and ahh, while they get sweated at. They ponder their own great history about which the people seem unaware, such as their ability to carry messages during war time. And so they conspire to all disappear one day, and send a note with their demands to the mayor: removing the spikes off of ledges, no shooing them away or running them down in cars, and in return they agree not to splat on cars or heads. They return with the first annual pigeon day parade, and shower the city with fortune-cookie-sized notes declaring, “when you are loved, you can love in return.”

The illustrations are cheerful and cute. The author plays with words in a fun way as he tells the story of two jellyfish brothers who are close as can be, until one is swept away by a “wave of superior magnitude.” Spencer tries to race to his brother’s rescue, but speed is not really a jellyfish’s strong suit. And so he calls upon his friends for help. With the help of a whale of superior magnitude, a mermaid, and a starfish, he locates his brother and figures how to lure him back out to sea before they both end up on the sand, and Horace once again helps the two find their way home. An author’s note in the back share additional information about jellyfish.

I really like this one. It’s a lovely celebration of the power of imagination and the joy of sharing one’s imagination. It starts by describing for us ways the Eliot uses his imagination to find adventure in his every-day life, then his frustration over how his imaginings must always come to an end. When his grandpa comes to visit, he’s got such stories to tell of his adventures through jungle rivers and sailing the sea in his boat, the Hispaniola. The next day Eliot asks his grandfather to take him adventuring, and after exploring the adventures the city holds, Eliot suggests they take out Grandpa’s boat, but Grandpa says they can’t. Then he shows Eliot why: down on the waterfront there is an old wreck of a boat for sale, with a hole in her side. Once again imagination comes to the rescue and the two set off together on a new adventure. The illustrations are great, and they use subtle shifts in color palettes to distinguish between real life and adventures born of imagination.

I know the Mr. Panda books are popular, so I guess my school library ought to have this one, too. It’s cute. I don’t object to it, but I have to confess I don’t quite “get it.” A bunch of assorted animals tell Mr. Panda good night. He tells each of them something they forgot to do before bed, but they all dismiss his advice. Lemur keeps popping in to say he’s done everything he should. Mr. Panda needs a reminder to tell Lemur good night, then he goes to bed in Lemur’s bed. It’s fine, but somehow I feel like I’m supposed to like it more than I did.