The Crown On Your Head - Publishers Weekly

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sign up nowBUY THIS BOOKThe Crown on Your Head

Nancy Tillman. Feiwel and Friends, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-312-64521-2

Tillman (On the Night You Were Born) continues her project of nurturing children's self-esteem, creating a cascade of dreamlike spreads to accompany verses assuring them that "[t]he world is a wonderland waiting for you." Her familiar brand of atmospheric, digitally created images show children who wear crowns "made up of sparkling, glimmering things/ like moonlight and fireflies, and dragonfly wings." These children are not the only ones who wear a crown; every child has one, Tillman explains: "No one's is brighter, no one's is duller./ It's only a crown of a different color." Tillman's montages begin with an infant and toddlers, before showing older children perching in a tree house, riding a cheetah, leaping with gazelles, and wearing a cape made of butterflies that come to life and flitter away. There's something magical about the idea of intimacy with wild animals; spreads in which Tillman imagines such interactions, like the cover image of the child asleep astride a zebra, have special power, especially as they're rendered with photograph-like verisimilitude. Tillman's affirmations will please her loyal audience: "Blink three times and... there you are!/ You are twinkling, little star!" Ages 4-8. (Sept.) DETAILSshareBUY THIS BOOKcloseDetails

Reviewed on: 07/11/2011

Genre: Children's

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Book Reviews

• On the Night You Were BornOn the Night You Were BornNancy TillmanThe birth of a baby\x97""the one and only ever you""\x97causes jubilation throughout creation in this quietly celebratory picture book from newcomer Tillman. Polar bears dance, giraffes weave to the Continue reading »
• The Spirit of ChristmasThe Spirit of ChristmasNancy TillmanAs the adult speaker of the story nods off in a comfy red chair, the Spirit of Christmas appears, ready to get the narrator in the holiday spirit. What follows is a buoyant, imagistic tribute to Continue reading »
• On the Night You Were BornOn the Night You Were BornNancy TillmanThe birth of a baby\x97""the one and only ever you""\x97causes jubilation throughout creation in this quietly celebratory picture book from newcomer Tillman. Polar bears dance, giraffes weave to the Continue reading »
• Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find YouWherever You Are: My Love Will Find YouNancy TillmanAs a child frolics in a magical version of the natural world, the narrator coos her enduring parental love: "I wanted you more/ than you ever will know,/so I sent love to follow/ wherever I go." The Continue reading »
• Tumford the TerribleTumford the TerribleNancy TillmanTumford exists to deliver a lesson on the importance of apologizing sincerely; with his chubby tummy and slick yellow boots, he looks as if he might have had some interesting adventures, but Tillman Continue reading »
• Tumford’s Rude NoisesTumford’s Rude NoisesNancy TillmanIn this follow-up to Tumford the Terrible, Tillman’s misbehaving kitten has a new pastime: “Face in his bowl, he blew bubbles and slurped./ Eating his sweet roll, he giggled and burped.” And when Continue reading »
• I’d Know You Anywhere, My LoveI’d Know You Anywhere, My LoveNancy TillmanYoung children adore pretending to be animals, and Tillman’s (The Crown on Your Head) insight into the wish to turn into another creature powers this book. The narrator, a handsome woman whose red Continue reading »
• The Heaven of AnimalsThe Heaven of AnimalsNancy TillmanWhat happens to our beloved animals after they die? “Sometimes I think that they already know,/ all of the animals... just where they’ll go,” writes Tillman (I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love). Continue reading »
• You’re Here for a ReasonYou’re Here for a ReasonNancy TillmanTillman (The Heaven of Animals) pairs her characteristically cheerful exhortations with layered mixed-media artwork in which startlingly real-looking children and animals play. The children Continue reading »
• You and Me and the Wishing TreeYou and Me and the Wishing TreeNancy TillmanTillman's mixed-media collages always have an air of surreal magic to them, a quality that especially befits this dreamy story of a mother's visit to a wish-granting tree with her child. Writing in Continue reading »
• You’re All Kinds of WonderfulYou’re All Kinds of WonderfulNancy TillmanTillman’s latest celebration of children’s unique qualities and talents pictures kids in various pursuits, joined by animals that often take part in the fun. Bells are the key motif, represented both Continue reading »
• You Are Loved: Welcome Wishes for New BabiesYou Are Loved: Welcome Wishes for New BabiesNancy TillmanWith euphoric, affirming verse and mixed-media art, Tillman (On the Night You Were Born) welcomes babies to a gentle, dreamlike world. Left-hand pages invite families to record their baby’s Continue reading »

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