ALA Booklist (Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

A joyful trip in an undesignated country uses the theme of "everyone travels down the river" to show the exuberance of water transport. The horizontal trim size is perfect for the boats' forward motion, as each page reveals yet another type of vessel: houseboats, cruisers, cargo ships, canoes, dinghies, and sailboats, all peopled with smiling, brown-skinned families. Each boat has a theme: "Beautiful Smile" sells flowers, "Happiness School" is packed with waving children, a surfboarder holds a smiling bikini-clad passenger, a musical boat contains an active rhythmic band. A restaurant boat ferries loving couples dining, and a long dugout carries ripe watermelons. Each vessel shares with the next, producing happiness and smiles all around through all four seasons as they continue downward to the sea, followed by a bevy of swans and a trailing bale of turtles. The acrylic digitized artwork uses vibrant colors; reds, greens, and blues pop against bright and sunny backgrounds. The journey ends delightfully when the endpapers announce that everything is good here" and "I am happy."

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A visual metaphor for life's journey presents a sunny, hopeful vision of both self-determination and community in this Brazilian import.While some readers may encounter it as a straightforward picture-book depiction of many people floating along a river in a variety of boats and other watercraft, there's ample potential for reading symbolic meaning into words and pictures. Simple phrases are juxtaposed with the vibrant acrylic illustrations (finished digitally) that show everyone traveling left to right with the page turns on calm waters that are the intense yellow of the sun. Boats, clothing, and other items are rendered in bright colors associated with the Caribbean, and most of the people have brown skin, with some sporting dreadlocks, others wearing head wraps, and still others with full, round Afro hairstyles. In an unusual choice for a picture book, most of the people are adults. Scattered environmental text painted on the boats ("Beautiful Smile"; "Everything is good here"; "I am happy") reads like affirmations, while the main text provides gentle advice about living a good life: "You will have to search for… // …your own way / and your own rhythm… // …while continuing to steer your course." This would make a refreshing alternative to Oh, the Places You'll Go as a perennial gift to graduates. A feel-good journey of a picture book. (Picture book. 4-adult)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Argentinian artist Starkoff-s book is set in the tropics: colorful boats crowd a river, sailing across the spreads. The water is golden, the color of sunlight, and the book-s low, wide proportions underscore the sense of a slow, steady journey by water. -Everyone travels along the river,- writes Starkoff, -by ship or boat or canoe.- Vivid acrylic paintings show people living and working on the boats. Most have dark skin, and they-re dressed in brilliant colors. One woman lives on a houseboat covered with cacti, a man pilots a floating kitchen, a barge carries musicians, and another man dozes next to a pile of watermelons. The hand-lettered names of the boats (My Heart; Thanks, Dad) will make readers grin. Starkoff-s message about piloting through life--You will have to discover... your own way and your own rhythm... while never letting go of your dreams--takes on rich resonance when paired with the vision of life on the river, as people and boats of all shapes and sizes are carried along on the same current. Starkoff celebrates elemental human values: community, music, simple talk, food, and contentment. Ages 4-up. (Apr.)

Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Low-key advice about finding your own course through life is simply expressed in terse poetic text. But it's Starkoff's naive, intensely hued acrylic paintings, finished in Photoshop, that will draw children repeatedly back to this Brazilian import with an appropriate long horizontal orientation. Boats on the unnamed river are filled with people (most are brown-skinned) playing music, preparing food, attending "Happiness School," and more.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

A visual metaphor for life's journey presents a sunny, hopeful vision of both self-determination and community in this Brazilian import.While some readers may encounter it as a straightforward picture-book depiction of many people floating along a river in a variety of boats and other watercraft, there's ample potential for reading symbolic meaning into words and pictures. Simple phrases are juxtaposed with the vibrant acrylic illustrations (finished digitally) that show everyone traveling left to right with the page turns on calm waters that are the intense yellow of the sun. Boats, clothing, and other items are rendered in bright colors associated with the Caribbean, and most of the people have brown skin, with some sporting dreadlocks, others wearing head wraps, and still others with full, round Afro hairstyles. In an unusual choice for a picture book, most of the people are adults. Scattered environmental text painted on the boats ("Beautiful Smile"; "Everything is good here"; "I am happy") reads like affirmations, while the main text provides gentle advice about living a good life: "You will have to search for… // …your own way / and your own rhythm… // …while continuing to steer your course." This would make a refreshing alternative to Oh, the Places You'll Go as a perennial gift to graduates. A feel-good journey of a picture book. (Picture book. 4-adult)