This sweet, feel-good tale about a can-do kid is in tune with its audience.
A young girl goes beachcombing and finds an unexpected friend.
Clem collects treasures both natural and human-made, and a small crab comes entangled in the plastic that makes up some of her collection. While heading home on the bus with her sister, Clem discovers that the crab has unwittingly stowed away in her pants leg. In her kitchen, she makes a home for the crab, then brings him to school along with all the plastic waste she found on the beach as part of her show and tell. Crab escapes, scaring and delighting her classmates, and the teacher tells Clem to take him back to the beach. Clem replies,“The beach is messy and dangerous. I try my best to keep it clean, but it’s a big job.” When she returns to the beach, she is delighted to find that her classmates are there already, helping to clean up. She feels much better about returning Crab to his newly pristine environment and makes a promise that she will always look after the beach: “for Crab, and all the other sea creatures.” Lumbers’ skillful, pleasingly composed pencil, crayon, and watercolor illustrations and simple but expressive text are perfectly suited to her story, capturing the ingenuous earnestness of her young protagonist. Clem and her sister are white; Clem’s classmates are diverse.
This sweet, feel-good tale about a can-do kid is in tune with its audience. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5415-9619-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Andersen Press USA
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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