A well-meaning but uneven offering.
Isabella knows her women’s history.
The little white girl cannot contain her excitement for the day she’s planned with her parents. “It’s not time, Isabella,” says her groggy mother at 6:00 a.m. “My name is not Isabella…I am SUSANNA, mayor of this here town,” she responds, and an accompanying picture shows her in a dress with a sash reading “FIRST FEMALE MAYOR” across her chest. This establishes a pattern, with Isabella proclaiming herself Jeanette (“FIRST FEMALE IN CONGRESS”), Nellie (“FIRST FEMALE GOVERNOR”), Frances (“FIRST FEMALE CABINET MEMBER”), and Sandra (“FIRST FEMALE JUSTICE [on the] SUPREME COURT”) while they prepare for their outing. The final spread shows them in a crowd at the U.S. capital watching the swearing-in of “MADAME PRESIDENT." The depiction of a woman of color as the fictional presidential character seems self-conscious, and her presence underscores the whiteness of the historical figures depicted earlier. A backmatter timeline under informational text about the white-women firsts does include diverse women’s accomplishments, but it also simplistically highlights the 19th Amendment with the phrase: “women get the right to vote,” erasing the experiences of systematically disenfranchised African-American and Native women. Litwin’s blueline pencil and Photoshop illustrations include such stylistic tics as purple hair for both Isabella and her mother and frequent, gaping grins, detracting from the book as a whole.
A well-meaning but uneven offering. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4173-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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