Amy Krouse Rosenthal wrote more than thirty picture books, including the New York Times bestsellers I Wish You More, Uni the Unicorn, Plant a Kiss, and Exclamation Mark. A contributor to National Public Radio, a TED collaborator and speaker, a filmmaker, and the author of two groundbreaking adult memoirs, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Amy raised her three children with her husband on a tree-lined street in Chicago. Peter H. Reynolds is the award-winning author and illustrator of The North Star, The Dot, and Ish. He also illustrated the bestselling Someday by Alison McGhee, Tess's Tree by Jess M. Brallier, and the bestselling Judy Moody series by Megan McDonald. Peter is the founder and CEO of FableVision, an educational company that produces animated films, books, and software. He lives in Dedham, Massachusetts.
PreS-Gr 1-A clever play on words can only sustain a story for so long, and a weak one even less so. In this oh-so-sweet short rhyming tale, a girl digs a hole, then smooches the ground, literally planting a kiss. With her mostly patient care, this odd "seed" sprouts-a small fountain of pink and yellow dots and textured glitter. Other children gather to witness the unusual crop. In forced rhymes, they try to talk the girl out of distributing her harvest, but to no avail. Scooping up the swirling substance into an enormous red bowl, she travels the world, bestowing this odd gift on a diverse cast of children. Her diaphanous offering trails glitter throughout the pages until the bowl empties. She then returns to the "plant" and discovers that it's grown into a bright yellow entity, a source of "endless bliss." Though Reynolds's distinctive cartoonish illustrations are delightfully expressive, they fail to make up for the flat, strained story. Muddled messages about sharing and imaginative play detract from the plot and confuse readers. Lackluster, despite the glitter overload, and trying too hard to please, this book lacks the effortless charm of Rosenthal's Little Pea (Chronicle, 2005) or Reynolds's Ish (Candlewick, 2004). Libraries with the most devoted Rosenthal and Reynolds fans might want this for their collections; at best, it's an additional purchase for everyone else.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
"Her [Amy Krouse Rosenthal] books radiate fun the way tulips radiate spring; they are elegant and spirit-lifting"--New York Times Book Review
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