Just the thing to engage children hungry for tasty, enjoyable picture-book fare.
Snack, anyone?
“Hi, monster friend!” says a scaly green creature. “I’m going to make a special snack for both of us.” Opening the Monster Cookbook, our protagonist displays the ingredients required for a “monster sandwich.” The recipe calls for two slices of bread buried in mud for five days, two tablespoons of earwax, an old shoe sole, two raggedy socks, and—the pièce de résistance—dry snot. (At this point, kids will be giggling or gagging very loudly.) Showing off the finished creation, the proud chef is shocked no one’s anxious to try it. Does it need more earwax? Readers will likely still be groaning. The befuddled monster doesn’t understand why anyone would pass up this delicacy. Adding onion juice doesn’t work. Wait a minute, the monster says. You don’t like cookies, fruit, chocolate, or pasta, do you? Naturally, children will be shrieking their assent. “So disgusting!” proclaims the monster. “If you eat those things, you’ll never be as healthy as me.” Still, our hero is a good friend and tops the sandwich with a strawberry before gulping it down. Kids will laugh themselves silly over this offering, mined for obvious satirical hilarity, and will savor repeat helpings. The riotous illustrations, incorporating lots of creative typesetting and starring an adorable bespectacled green monster, match the comical proceedings.
Just the thing to engage children hungry for tasty, enjoyable picture-book fare. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780711283404
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Happy Yak
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If Black Lives Matter, they deserve more specificity than this.
A lushly illustrated picture book with a troubling message.
Little Lala walks with her father after his successful day of fishing. When Mama calls her home for bed, a host of “good night”s delays her: to the bird, the monkey, and even the rock. As Lala wanders through her village in the darkening twilight, readers appreciate its expansive beauty and Lala’s simple joys. Although it’s been artfully written and richly illustrated by an award-winning author of many multicultural stories, this book has problems that overshadow its beauty. “African veld” sets the story in southern Africa, but its vague locale encourages Americans to think that distinctions among African countries don’t matter. Lala wears braids or locks that stick straight up, recalling the 19th-century pickaninny, and her inconsistent skin color ranges from deep ebony like her father’s to light brown. Shadows may cause some of these differences, but if it weren’t for her identifiable hair, readers might wonder if the same child wanders from page to page. Perhaps most striking of all is Lala’s bedtime story: not an African tale but an American classic. While this might evoke nostalgia in some readers, it also suggests that southern Africa has no comparably great bedtime books for Lala, perhaps in part because American children’s literature dominates the world market.
If Black Lives Matter, they deserve more specificity than this. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-17384-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
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