The diminutive humans’ unhesitating generosity to one in need adds a warm glow to this gourmand’s delight.
A dismayed lad learns that 10 slices of pizza, 33 jars of peanut butter and 200 cookies are only hors d’oeuvres for a peckish giant. What to do?
Looking decidedly woebegone in Nielsen’s very simple, graphic-style illustrations, the towering giant that silently appears in the backyard sports a reversible sign: “Food” on one side, “Please” on the other. With repeated choruses of “Seriously, you aren’t going to believe this,” and “It’s back to the kitchen for me,” the well-intentioned young narrator nearly empties his astonishingly well-stocked fridge. (His dog, Cowgirl, provides a running side commentary: “That’s one thirsty giant.”) Until, at last, Mom steps in and sets to work concocting a “Ginormous Blueberry Muffin,” “Mega-Pigs in Blankets” and like oversized dishes—all of which are provided with reasonably nutritious “Recipes for a hungry giant (or 8 little kids)” on a flimsy detachable flier. Besides the aforementioned signboard, the sparse but well-designed moveable parts include a pull-up giant on the front cover, a swimming pool filled with chocolate milk that’s slurped up thanks to a pull tab and a big climactic pop-up of the now-smiling giant contemplating a table filled with properly scaled chow.
The diminutive humans’ unhesitating generosity to one in need adds a warm glow to this gourmand’s delight. (Pop-up. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7611-5752-6
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some...
With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
