A gorgeously illustrated book with a clever concept.
A boy makes an elaborate excuse for a missing school assignment in this rhyming alphabet picture book.
Elementary school teacher Mrs. May asks her student Jet why he didn’t complete his assignment to write out the alphabet. The boy explains that he did complete it—but the letters ran away or simply disappeared off the page. Jet goes on to detail what happened to each one: “B was so sad that she didn’t stay. / C left as well; he wanted to play.” After chronicling the whereabouts of the entire alphabet, Mrs. May tells Jet that the letters will “pay for their crimes,” and she instructs the boy to write out the alphabet 20 times, much to his dismay. Fegan’s (Don't Ever Look Behind Door 32, 2018, etc.) rhyme scheme is smooth, with short sentences and child-friendly language. Returning collaborator Wen’s fantastic illustrations further enhance the story. Most show Jet attempting to find the runaway letters, depicted as playful, monsterlike creatures. The whimsical scenery is richly colored, with each page offering clever details and subtext. For instance, the “P” creature resembles a purse-carrying peacock, with items starting with “P” (plants, pumpkin, pie) subtly appearing in the background. Both Jet and Mrs. May appear to be Caucasian, and the other students include people of color.
A gorgeously illustrated book with a clever concept.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-925810-00-4
Page Count: 34
Publisher: TaleBlade
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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