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TOO MUCH GARBAGE

Name: TOO MUCH GARBAGE
Author: Fulvio Testa
ISBN: 0-7358-1451-1

by Fulvio Testa & illustrated by Fulvio Testa ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2001

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Hints of playfulness are squashed beneath the message in this trite consciousness-raiser. Two lads comment on the litter they see while wandering city streets: “ ‘People throw garbage out their windows,’ ” says one as a toilet comes crashing down, “ ‘They throw it out of cars. And someday the cars themselves will be garbage.’ ” The two stand, finally, contemplating a sea of garbage bags and castoffs—until one spots a flower amidst the trash. “ ‘We need less garbage and more flowers . . . It’s up to us.’ ” Testa’s crisp, simple style (A Long Trip To Z, 1997, etc.) is not well-suited to depicting litter; even the rusting hulks in his overstuffed junkscapes have a clean, tidy look, and trash is so neatly drawn that it hardly looks used. This may make a good discussion-starter, especially with younger children, but such calls to action as Christopher Cheng’s One Child (1999) or Loreen Leedy’s Great Trash Bash (1991) convey the problem, and possible responses to it, in more urgent, convincing ways. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: May 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-7358-1451-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: NorthSouth

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
PINOCCHIO
by Carlo Collodi illustrated by Fulvio Testa translated by Geoffrey Brock

- BOOK REVIEW
CAT AND MOUSE AND SOMETHING TO DO
by Fulvio Testa & illustrated by Fulvio Testa

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ROSIE REVERE, ENGINEER

by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2013

Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the...

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Rhymed couplets convey the story of a girl who likes to build things but is shy about it. Neither the poetry nor Rosie’s projects always work well.

Rosie picks up trash and oddments where she finds them, stashing them in her attic room to work on at night. Once, she made a hat for her favorite zookeeper uncle to keep pythons away, and he laughed so hard that she never made anything publicly again. But when her great-great-aunt Rose comes to visit and reminds Rosie of her own past building airplanes, she expresses her regret that she still has not had the chance to fly. Great-great-aunt Rose is visibly modeled on Rosie the Riveter, the iconic, red-bandanna–wearing poster woman from World War II. Rosie decides to build a flying machine and does so (it’s a heli-o-cheese-copter), but it fails. She’s just about to swear off making stuff forever when Aunt Rose congratulates her on her failure; now she can go on to try again. Rosie wears her hair swooped over one eye (just like great-great-aunt Rose), and other figures have exaggerated hairdos, tiny feet and elongated or greatly rounded bodies. The detritus of Rosie’s collections is fascinating, from broken dolls and stuffed animals to nails, tools, pencils, old lamps and possibly an erector set. And cheddar-cheese spray.

Earnest and silly by turns, it doesn’t quite capture the attention or the imagination, although surely its heart is in the right place. (historical note) (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4197-0845-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
LILA GREER, TEACHER OF THE YEAR
by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts

- BOOK REVIEW
AARON SLATER, ILLUSTRATOR
by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts

- BOOK REVIEW
ONE GIRL
by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by Dow Phumiruk

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WATER

by Frank Asch & edited by Frank Asch ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1995

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``Water is dew. Water is ice and snow.'' No matter what form it takes, seldom has plain old water appeared so colorful as in this rainbow-hued look at rain, dew, snowflakes, clouds, rivers, floods, and seas. Asch celebrates water's many forms with a succinct text and lush paintings done in mostly in softly muted watercolors of aqua, green, rose, blue, and yellow. They look as if they were created with a wet-on-wet technique that makes every hue lightly bleed into its neighbor. Water appears as ribbons of color, one sliding into the other, while objects that are not (in readers' minds) specifically water-like—trees, rocks, roots—are similarly colored. Perhaps the author intends to show water is everything and everything is water, but the concept is not fully realized for this age group. The whole is charming, but more successful as art than science. Though catalogued as nonfiction, this title will be better off in the picture book section. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)