One part fiction, one part history lesson, this likable story is an amusing introduction to one slice of early American life.
The true history of Amelia Simmons, the author of America’s first cookbook, has been lost. Enter this whimsical, fictionalized account of what could’ve been, delectable cakes included!
After Amelia’s parents die in the first two sentences, the mob-capped white girl is taken in by Mrs. Bean to help with chores and watch her six rambunctious sons, all also white. Amelia cleans clothes, scrubs pots, picks apples, and that’s only half of it! What she doesn’t already know how to do, she learns. Mrs. Bean is ever so grateful. “You’ve brightened our lives like a star on the flag.” In addition to her chores, Amelia wants “to learn good, plain American cookery and [to] share recipes with my fellow citizens.” Soon, Amelia is inventing delicious new recipes using American ingredients and becomes the talk of the town, eventually baking the titular (enormous!) cake in honor of the newly elected president, George Washington. The tale presents a distinctly rosy vision of life as an orphaned “bound girl” in late-18th-century America. Too good to be true? Perhaps. But Hopkinson’s lively text—rife with allegorical Americana—and Potter’s charming watercolor-and-ink illustrations team up to tell an entertaining story. Readers will delight in spotting every single rosy-cheeked Bean boy on the page, all up to no good!
One part fiction, one part history lesson, this likable story is an amusing introduction to one slice of early American life. (author’s note, recipe) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-39017-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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