(1) 4-6 Reflecting on some memorable moments of his life, celebrated author-illustrator Pinkney offers an intimate look back to his childhood in this poignant, posthumously published memoir. The book opens in 1949 in a close-knit African American community in Philadelphia, where nine-year-old Jerry's days are filled with the camaraderie of his "buddies" and their escapades in the neighborhood. Having drawn for as long as he could remember, Pinkney recalled, "It was my way of living in my imagination, and breaking free of the constraints I was growing up with. Everything I saw, heard, felt, tasted, and smelled, I'd think of as a picture." He thrived in a nurturing, sometimes chaotic home; his supportive family recognized his talent, but he faced challenges in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. At age thirteen, while working at a newsstand, he met a comics artist who invited Pinkney to visit his studio, leading the young man to believe "that my talents might lead to an actual profession." Pinkney's conversational text, printed in a dyslexia-friendly font (per the book's introduction), is accompanied by equally energetic and copious sketches that weave in and out of the pages; final art had not been completed upon his death. An opening editor's note explains Pinkney's vision for the book, which he had been thinking about and working on for a decade, until he died in 2021: "This book has been visually composed in a way that differs from Jerry's intention but hopefully still captures his goal...to believably bring readers into the world in which he grew up [through] a visually immersive approach." A list of key dates and selected accomplishments of this extraordinary artist is appended.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) PS Pinkney brings readers Black mermaids and a richly imagined undersea world in this addition to his picture-book takes on classic tales (most recently The Three Billy Goats Gruff, 2017). Most of Hans Christian Andersen's original elements remain--a Sea King in a merfolk kingdom; the titular mermaid princess with a "majestic" voice, who longs to walk on land; and a sinister Sea Witch, looking for revenge. Pinkney's most significant change is that he replaces the romance in the original tale with a friendship. Melody, the little mermaid of the story, visits the Sea Witch to swap her voice for legs so that she can spend time with Zion, her new friend on land, who tells her she shouldn't have given up her voice "for anything." When Melody learns that the Sea Witch is endangering her family, she swims back and saves them. Pinkney gives the protagonist more autonomy and less punishment than in the original; in a closing author's note he explains such choices. Pinkney's lush, iridescent illustrations are breathtaking. His beautifully colored, primarily blue undersea world is juxtaposed with the earth-toned, sand-covered world above and its "fiery ball" in the sky. The Sea Witch--who has fingered tentacles, horns, and sharp, terrifying teeth--is particularly menacing and is always surrounded by ghoulish sea-creature sidekicks. A spirited and elegant revisioning.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(3) K-3 Pinkney's retelling of the classic folktale allows a happier ending for the troll--he is still defeated by the biggest billy goat Gruff but lives to watch the goats reveling in the good life (and possibly, as revealed on the endpapers, even joining in). The story unfolds in well-paced text and through a nicely varied layout of Pinkney's signature watercolor illustrations.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(2) K-3 Pinkney transforms Aesop's harsh fable about the consequences of improvidence into one celebrating the value of the arts. Grasshopper's dancing and singing beguile the ants, but when he begs for shelter, he's turned away in a poignant wordless sequence. After conferring in their cozy warren, however, the ants invite him in; Grasshopper leads a convivial songfest. Woodland scenes teem with flora, insects, and seasonal activity.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015

(2) K-3 In Pinkney's brilliantly illustrated, nearly wordless Aesop fable, Tortoise's plodding journey across a desert landscape shows a host of critters native to the American Southwest cheering him on. The richly detailed pictures are lively and humorous, but what makes this retelling particularly ingenious is Pinkney's use of the "slow-and-steady" moral in a cumulative progression, both to recount the action and provide dramatic tension.

Reviewer: Kathleen T. Horning | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2013

(2) K-3 Pinkney provides sumptuous watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil illustrations that place realistic natural elements side by side with ostentatious embellishments in the eighteenth-century clothing of the human characters. Aside from switching the story’s usual ogre into a sorcerer, Pinkney sticks close to the source and uses his large pages, including a gatefold illustration, to great effect.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2013

(3) PS A curious chipmunk follows an object "like a diamond in the sky" up to a nest, over some water, and, lofted by the wind, close to the moon. The wonderstruck creature splashes down in a pond and is rescued by a swan before finally making its way home. "Twinkle, Twinkle" lyrics are interspersed unobtrusively throughout the lush, warm, mostly wordless spreads.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) PS In this classic nursery rhyme, a mother cat threatens her three careless kittens with the loss of pie-eating privileges if they don't find their mittens. Cannily playing up the story's fundamental frivolity, Pinkney beribbons (and ultimately bemittens) the kittens and puts "mother dear" in bows. Young readers will get wrapped up in the light, relatable-to-kids dramatics.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(2) K-3 Here is the quintessential Aesop, lovingly retold in a contemporary yet timeless style embellished with a profusion of glorious illustrations. The text, sixty-one fables in all, begs to be read aloud; the pictures transport the audience into a different world, magical yet firmly grounded in reality. The whole is an exemplary model of bookmaking--and one destined to become a favorite version of these tales.

Reviewer: Mary M. Burns | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2001