Youngsters who are constantly told to hush will love how a little character’s big voice makes all the difference.
A small cat and a little girl stop a crime in this illustrated tale.
Mouse, a tiny gray feline with huge ears and a big voice, never seems to meow when her family can appreciate it. Instead, she does so during television shows and breakfast time, and when everyone wants to sleep. But Little Liz understands what it’s like when others don’t listen; instead of telling Mouse to “hush,” like everyone else, Liz listens, and Mouse listens to her. One day, when Mouse hears an unusual noise in the kitchen, she tries to get her people’s attention. Only Liz responds, and they discover burglars. Mouse saves the day with a house-shaking meow, keeping the crisis in Benishek’s (The Squeezor Is Coming!, 2018, etc.) story from becoming too scary. (The cat-burglar team also includes actual cats, which heightens the silliness.) Mouse’s perpetual cheer, even in the face of being told to hush, comes through in Young’s (Angel on Assignment, 2018, etc.) color illustrations, which show Liz to be an irrepressible youngster with dark skin and curly brown hair. The parallels between Mouse (who “hadn’t grown into her ears yet”) and Little Liz (who “hadn’t grown into her eyes yet”) are also cleverly expressed.
Youngsters who are constantly told to hush will love how a little character’s big voice makes all the difference.Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-387-83056-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: MacLaren-Cochrane Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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