Readers of the first book will be pleased with the continuing adventures of Abigail and Reginald, but others may want to...
The follow-up to Peanut Butter & Brains (2015) adds an interstellar element but shows that sandwich snacks can be universal.
In the town of Quirkville, living people and the undead enjoy a peaceful cohabitation. But when one-eyed green aliens demanding, “SPLOINK!?” arrive and begin shooting up the town with “cosmic grape jelly,” heroes Abigail Zink and zombie Reginald save the day with the only complementary sandwich spread (hint: it’s in the title) that will please them. As with the first book, Abigail and Reginald make a winning team, and the zombies are illustrated as cute, if a little stitched-up and gray-blue in skin tone. (Abigail is white, but the other living inhabitants of Quirkville show pleasing diversity.) But what was fizzy and fun in the first book may seem like a loose mishmash (zombies and aliens and food culture) to readers new to the concept. And the aliens themselves lack the charm of the zombies; they’re tentacled and Popsicle-shaped with sprouting antennae and potato-shaped blasters, a not-particularly-original imagining. If the aliens seem gimmicky, especially for a story set in Quirkville, the story at least has a feel-good ending free of peanut allergies, which apparently aren’t a thing in outer space.
Readers of the first book will be pleased with the continuing adventures of Abigail and Reginald, but others may want to pick that volume first or bypass this alien sighting entirely. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2530-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Chilling in the best ways.
When a young rabbit who’s struggling in school finds a helpful crayon, everything is suddenly perfect—until it isn’t.
Jasper is flunking everything except art and is desperate for help when he finds the crayon. “Purple. Pointy…perfect”—and alive. When Jasper watches TV instead of studying, he misspells every word on his spelling test, but the crayon seems to know the answers, and when he uses the crayon to write, he can spell them all. When he faces a math quiz after skipping his homework, the crayon aces it for him. Jasper is only a little creeped out until the crayon changes his art—the one area where Jasper excels—into something better. As guilt-ridden Jasper receives accolade after accolade for grades and work that aren’t his, the crayon becomes more and more possessive of Jasper’s attention and affection, and it is only when Jasper cannot take it anymore that he discovers just what he’s gotten himself into. Reynolds’ text might as well be a Rod Serling monologue for its perfectly paced foreboding and unsettling tension, both gentled by lightly ominous humor. Brown goes all in to match with a grayscale palette for everything but the purple crayon—a callback to black-and-white sci-fi thrillers as much as a visual cue for nascent horror readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Chilling in the best ways. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6588-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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