In four short chapters, Elliott (An Alphabet of Rotten Kids, 1991) has created a breezy summertime read in which a group of friends form a club. It’s a hot summer day when Leo and Marcus decide to create a club with Miranda and Phoebe. The four youngsters debate amongst themselves, playfully bandying about names for the club such as “Doodles” and “Piñatas” until finally settling on “The Cool Crazy Crickets.” But now the question arises of where the club will reside. What’s a club without a clubhouse? After some searching they tape together two refrigerator boxes, each youngster contributing to the overall aesthetics of the hideout. As the blithesome tale proceeds, the group decides on their mascot—Noodles, the pet dog that scampers through the story—and, lastly, just what kind of club they are. This quandary proves to be the most irksome, but finally, as three of them are just about to abandon the clubhouse, Leo has a brilliant solution dubbing them the “F.F.L.” club: Friends For Life. Meisel’s (The Tortoise and the Hare, 1998, etc.) artwork is active and rollicking, depicting a multicultural cast of characters in flushed watercolors outlined in ink. Bringing to light carefree summer days and the intimacy of hideouts with good friends, Elliott highlights the benefits of working as a group and the rewards of compromise. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0601-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
At her best, Rylant’s (The Ticky-Tacky Doll, below, etc.) sweetness and sentiment fills the heart; in this outing, however, sentimentality reigns and the end result is pretty gooey. Pandora keeps a lighthouse: her destiny is to protect ships at sea. She’s lonely, but loves her work. She rescues Seabold and heals his broken leg, and he stays on to mend his shipwrecked boat. This wouldn’t be so bad but Pandora’s a cat and Seabold a dog, although they are anthropomorphized to the max. Then the duo rescue three siblings—mice!—and make a family together, although Rylant is careful to note that Pandora and Seabold each have their own room. Choosing what you love, caring for others, making a family out of love, it is all very well, but this capsizes into silliness. Formatted to look like the start of a new series. Oh, dear. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84880-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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