Meet Penny, by Kevin Henkes

Coming soon!

Little White Rabbit from The Horn Book

Little White Rabbit

January 11, 2012 By Lolly Robinson 1 Comment

I’ve been a fan of Kevin Henkes’s “thick line” books ever since the first one came out — Kitten’s First Full Moon, the year I was on Caldecott. All of these books work well with very young children and have a timeless feeling, as if Henkes was channeling the spirit of Margaret Wise Brown when he wrote the texts.
The art, though, is completely his. I think no one does “cozy” like Henkes, but he keeps the art child-centered and never settles for nostalgia, which would seem to be the easy (and wrong) choice. The minimalist features might look quick and easy to draw, but the precise placement of of eyes, nose, mouth, and ears show the reader exactly what each character is feeling.
I like that this book is following Tweak Tweak in our discussion because while the stories are similar, the art couldn’t be more different. Both books involve a young animal wondering about his or her place in the larger world, both include fantasy spreads in which the animal changes (flies, grows larger, etc.), and both end back at home with satisfaction in their present lives. Henkes’s art is simpler than Ruzzier’s, and it’s also more lush. Repeated readings should keep adults from getting bored, too. For example, when Little White Rabbit hops over a rock and wonders what it would be like not to move, is Henkes giving us an homage to Sylvester and the Magic Pebble? And on the next page when we see the rabbit testing the idea of stillness (a wordless spread with four panels showing the rabbit unmoving through sunny morning, rain, sunset, and night), is it a coincidence that he is shaped just like a chocolate rabbit and colored brown in the last panel?
I love the design choices in this book, too. The use of small squares, large squares, and full spreads provides the perfect pacing. I also have to mention the use of bold green outline. In his other thick line books, the outline color tends to be dictated by an element in the text, often changing with each scene. Here, green is just part of the rabbit’s first query but Henkes keeps the color up throughout. He could have chosen brown or black to be more naturalistic, or he could have started with green and then switched around. But using green all the way through to the end is a great choice, extending the fantasy feeling and giving the entire book an outdoorsy openness. And I adore the way the typeface matches the art and the book’s tone. It’s a sturdy sans serif with cheeky upward curves in the Ds, the Ks, and the ligatures between F and I or L. And of course it’s green to match the outlines.

So what do you all think? As a past winner, Henkes will undoubtedly be on the committee’s radar. Could this little white rabbit have a little gold seal in its future?

Anita Silvey talks about Wemberly Worried!

For some children, the end of August means preparing to go to school for the very first time. For them August has been designated Get Ready for Kindergarten Month. If you are hunting for a book that might help the very young overcome some of their anxieties about school, today we’ll look at Kevin Henkes’s Wemberly Worried and tomorrow, Antoinette Portis’s Kindergarten Diary.
First published in 2000, Wemberly Worried appears to be one of the many Kevin Henkes titles headed for classic status. As a young artist, Kevin got a head start on creating books for children. He always knew he wanted to write and illustrate books, and he got his foot in the door of a publisher when he was nineteen. Since then, he has crafted one fabulous book after another.
Although Kevin is now married with children of his own, he is one of those gifted creators who has never forgotten what it feels like to be small and young and vulnerable. His books always have a truth to the way children think and feel.
In our book of the day, Kevin opens the story with these words: “Wemberly worried about everything.” And readers get to see all the things that concern our mouse heroine—such as shrinking in the bathtub. Although everyone in her family tries to tell her not to worry—including her pretty hip grandma mouse sporting a “Go with the Flow” T-shirt—Wemberly just can’t help the thoughts that go through her mind. The radiator might contain a snake; a tree might fall on their house. So when school looms, she worries about the beginning of school. On a two-page spread her worries are even listed in large type: a mean teacher, a smelly room, finding the bathroom.
But of course, in Kevin Henkes’s universe, everything turns out for the best. Wemberly finds a friend and discovers that her teacher, Mrs. Peachum, may not be so bad. By the end of the first day, she jauntily walks out of the room, telling everyone she’ll return. “I will,” she says. “Don’t worry.”
By creating a character full of neuroses, Kevin Henkes allows children to laugh at their own fears and feel that, in the end, going to school might just not be so bad after all.
So to relieve your children’s anxiety—and your own—about the beginning of a new school year, pick up Wemberly Worried. I should probably read it to my graduate students on the first day of class—it applies equally to them.
Here’s a page from Wemberly Worried: