Shine!

by Patrick McDonnell, Naoko Stoop (Artist)

Overview

A shining new picture book about learning to appreciate the wonders in your world and within yourself, by New York Times bestselling author Patrick McDonnell and Naoko Stoop, creator of Red Knit Cap Girl, a New York Times Best Illustrated book

Hoshi the sea star looks up in the sky and sees the stars shining. She wishes that she too could be in the sky amongst the brilliant stars—and as she imagines how much better it would be up in the air, she fails to appreciate the beautiful world that surrounds her underwater. It takes Hoshi's friends, old and new, to help her realize that her shine comes from within. With gorgeous illustrations depicting colorful underwater life, Shine! teaches about the wonders that can be found inside ourselves.

Naoko's gorgeous use of plywood as the canvas for her work offers the perfect texture and pattern to evoke waves and sea currents in the underwater scenes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316433945
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/25/2017
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	33 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Patrick McDonnell is the author and illustrator of Tek: The Modern Cave Boy, Thank You and Good Night, A Perfectly Messed-Up Story, The Monsters' Monster, and Me...Jane, a Caldecott Honor Book. He is also the creator of the internationally syndicated comic strip Mutts, which inspired his picture books The Gift of Nothing, Hug Time, and others. He lives in New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

02/13/2017
Hoshi, a starfish, longs to be in the sky like the twinkling stars above, not stuck in the water: “Up there, where I would shine! Oh, poor little me... a star stuck in the sea.” Things are already perfect where Hoshi is now, McDonnell (Tek) makes clear with a wink: “ ‘I should be floating among the colorful planets,’ Hoshi thought, as she floated among the colorful coral. ‘Imagine all the unique and wonderful friends you could meet up there!’ she told her unique and wonderful neighbors.” Unable to ascend, Hoshi dives into deep water, where an anglerfish gives her the wisdom she needs: “Happiness, my dear, is always found right... here,” she says, pointing to her heart. Though there’s not much interaction between text and illustration, Stoop’s (Sing with Me!) mixed-media artwork adds richness and depth. The many sea creatures, painted on wood grain, are identifiable—scarlet coral, a green crab—and the scenes gain beauty from graded washes of sky and water. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. Illustrator’s agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Shine!:


"A lovely...title to share."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

04/01/2017
PreS-Gr 1—Little Hoshi is a sea star who has her sights set on the sparkling sky. She wishes she were "up there, where all is fine. Up there, where I would shine!" Many listeners will relate to McDonnell's self-pitying protagonist, who thinks everything would be perfect, if only. The narrative is conveyed primarily in prose; rhymes are used twice to focus attention on the central struggle. As in Stoop's Red Knit Cap Girl, the use of a plywood canvas—to which acrylic, pencil, pastel, and ink have been applied and digitally manipulated—cleverly allows the grain of the wood to become the irregular lines of the ocean current or the heat radiating from the sun. The artist employs pattern, color, and scale to create surprises as the pages turn when Hoshi is imagining the wonders in the heavens (while missing the school of minnows, the vibrant coral, and the enormous whale passing by). The sea star's red orange coloring contrasts with the gray ocean depths, where she has retreated in despair. A chance encounter with an anglerfish, whose luminescence Little Hoshi envies, helps her learn the secret of shining: being happy with one's situation, with one's self. As she rises back to the water's surface, her heart glows. VERDICT A lovely but somewhat purposeful title to share one-on-one or with a small group. Fans of McDonnell and Stoop will appreciate the pleasing way the medicine goes down.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

School Library Journal

2017-01-17
A sea creature yearns to live in the sky.Hoshi is a red starfish with little black eyes and white circles on her cheeks. Every night on the beach, she gazes longingly upward, believing that only as a celestial star can she "shine." As the sun rises and the tide pulls her back into the water, the text is amusingly explicit about what Hoshi's environment isn't actually missing: " ‘I should be floating among the colorful planets,' Hoshi [thinks], as she float[s] among the colorful coral"; " ‘Up there, there are exciting and endless possibilities,' she explain[s] to the exciting, endless schools of minnows." McDonnell's two-part message—that Hoshi's environment has everything she longs for, and that she can "shine" and be happy simply by deciding to, as an anglerfish explains—is hardly original, and Hoshi's self-pity ("poor little me…a star stuck in the sea") feels overdone at her expense. However, the artwork—acrylic, pencil, pastel, and ink on plywood—has some lovely aspects. The stars in the sky seem truly luminescent; the "exciting, endless" school of yellow minnows glides alluringly through green water; and, most inventively, Stoop uses the natural wood grain of her plywood base as beach, undersea sand patterns, and ocean currents. There's no place like home, even underwater, though the eventual happiness here seems more dictated than organic. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews