Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Pomelo, a diminutive, round-eyed, pink elephant child, discovers opposites in his garden world. Sometimes satisfyingly clear and sometimes comically questionable, all 58 of Pomelo's opposites engage and delight. Are polka-dot mushrooms really the opposite of striped mushrooms? Many pairings challenge young readers with sophisticated humor, hinting at tacit desires and subtle feelings. In one spread, Pomelo appears with a lustrous head of blond hair with "dream" appearing beneath; on the accompanying page, a bald head sits atop his body with "reality" stamped below. Pomelo's eyes look identically plaintive in both portraits--a perfect punch line. These illustrations, rich with implicit suggestions, prompt parents to offer explanations or (better yet!) solicit interpretations from their children. Some opposites, thankfully, are just downright silly. Watch Pomelo, whose body crosses the book's gutter, open w-i-d-e for a round, red fruit ("in") on the left page, and see his tail raised to expel an identically spherical poo ("out") on the right. The book's pace quickens as it advances, and more and more quirky, nonsensical, complicated pairings crop up. The speedy delivery of associations starts to feel like an exciting, wild ride. Images, words and meanings volley back and forth, bouncing from page to page and between this clever book and readers' imaginations. Simple, sunny, silly illustrations brilliantly convey the complexities and joys one can unearth when tilling a garden of language. (Picture book. 4-6)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

K-Gr 3 Filled with whimsy, surprise, and pure fun, this French import extends the idea of opposites far beyond the basics. More than 100 pages are packed neatly into the small, square-shaped frame, with contrasting words and images facing on each spread. Many, but not all, feature Pomelo, a big-eyed, long-trunked pink elephant demonstrating each example. The book begins with fairly standard word pairs, but the art is anything but predictable. For example, "morning/evening" features identical scenes with the skies reversed. Further page turns lead to even more imaginative interpretations. The words stray from direct opposites in playful ways, such as "something"/"whatever" and "handsome"/"weird." The cartoon drawings are often funny: one shows a red piece of food going "in" the elephant's mouth, then coming out his opposite end, having turned brown after digestion. Some are thought-provoking: a flower losing its petals represents "fleeting," then the same flower is captured in a painting for "permanent." When the word pairs require an extra bit of stretching to fit as opposites, such as "on snailback"/"by turtle," it's in keeping with the creative, carefree tone that permeates the book. Rich vocabulary ("stalagmite," "concave," and "gastropod," for example) and deceptively subtle visual interpretations make this a great choice for parent-child sharing and discussion, but solo children will have no problem immersing themselves in the clever, playful, and deftly imagined illustrations.— Steven Engelfried, Wilsonville Public Library, OR

Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

The amiable pink elephant introduced in Pomelo Begins to Grow returns in a third cozily hand-size book, this time to demonstrate dozens of opposite pairings. Some of the pairings aren't, strictly speaking, examples of opposites ("polka-dotted" faces "striped"; "having" faces "being"), but the creators make a familiar concept smile-worthy through their inventive vignettes: "something" (a teapot) faces "whatever" (a teapot-Pomelo hybrid).

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

Pomelo, a diminutive, round-eyed, pink elephant child, discovers opposites in his garden world. Sometimes satisfyingly clear and sometimes comically questionable, all 58 of Pomelo's opposites engage and delight. Are polka-dot mushrooms really the opposite of striped mushrooms? Many pairings challenge young readers with sophisticated humor, hinting at tacit desires and subtle feelings. In one spread, Pomelo appears with a lustrous head of blond hair with "dream" appearing beneath; on the accompanying page, a bald head sits atop his body with "reality" stamped below. Pomelo's eyes look identically plaintive in both portraits--a perfect punch line. These illustrations, rich with implicit suggestions, prompt parents to offer explanations or (better yet!) solicit interpretations from their children. Some opposites, thankfully, are just downright silly. Watch Pomelo, whose body crosses the book's gutter, open w-i-d-e for a round, red fruit ("in") on the left page, and see his tail raised to expel an identically spherical poo ("out") on the right. The book's pace quickens as it advances, and more and more quirky, nonsensical, complicated pairings crop up. The speedy delivery of associations starts to feel like an exciting, wild ride. Images, words and meanings volley back and forth, bouncing from page to page and between this clever book and readers' imaginations. Simple, sunny, silly illustrations brilliantly convey the complexities and joys one can unearth when tilling a garden of language. (Picture book. 4-6)