With pages filled with animals and robots, this tale will certainly appeal to kids; the story of friendship conquering...
A turtle and an ostrich learn to accommodate each other’s ideas while working on a project in this picture book.
When turtle Howie fails to find a partner in the after-school robot club, he pretends it doesn’t bother him. But suddenly in pops an ostrich student, Lincoln, who has just moved from East Africa. The teacher pairs them together, and the two soon realize that while they both know a lot about robots, they have very different concepts about what one should look like. “That’s wonky!” becomes a refrain as the pair shows new and different—and bizarre—ideas. Once they put their heads together to decide on the robot’s purpose, they come up with a perfect design. When the teacher says it’s a little wonky, Howie explains to Lincoln that the word might mean weird, but it also signifies wonderful. The partners decide that they are wonky friends. In her offbeat and clever story, Pattison (Clang, 2017) uses approachable vocabulary without ever dumbing down her characters’ ideas. Gold’s (Too Much TV Rots Your Brain, 2017) ink-and-watercolor illustrations have strong lines and sometimes-splotchy paint for a stylized effect that’s a bit wonky, making it a perfect fit.
With pages filled with animals and robots, this tale will certainly appeal to kids; the story of friendship conquering first-day-of-school jitters remains a bonus.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62944-105-4
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Mims House
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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
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