Following in the tradition of What Fathers Can’t Do (2001) and What Mothers Can’t Do (2000), Wood moves on to present a tongue-in-cheek look at the shortcomings of teachers. It is well-known that teachers are not allowed to be tardy and that they cannot ride skateboards to school, but readers might be surprised to discover that teachers cannot buy their own apples or that they “can’t teach best without flowers on their desk.” It’s amazing that with all their knowledge they can’t seem to spell the word “cat” or remember the solution to two plus two. Perhaps they are distracted by the fact that “they can’t use that hall pass to go to the bathroom;” maybe it’s that “teachers can’t go down the tube slide at recess. . . .” But whatever their shortcomings, it’s the things they can do that seem to matter. Hilarious and brightly colored drawings of the dinosaur teachers with pearls and glasses and dinosaurs preschoolers with backpacks and pigtails accompany the text. It seems that even after having paint on their clothes and chalk dust in their hair and lungs, teachers “can’t wait to come back to school tomorrow.” Somewhat saccharine, but worthy praise for an under-appreciated profession. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84644-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up. Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields. Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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
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