Readers who like to cuddle up to their monsters will respond to this one.
Junior Monster Scouts to the rescue!
Monster pals Franky Stein, Vampyra, and Wolfy are out practicing howling—well, Wolfy is practicing for his merit badge as the others coach him—when they hear someone crying. It’s Peter the piper, a human child who has lost his kitten, Shadow. After the monsters convince Peter that they are nice, helpful monsters and not scary ones, the four head into the Gloomy Woods and work together to find and rescue Shadow. Meanwhile, the mean, rotten Baron Von Grump and his crow, Edgar, have hatched a plan to clear the nearby village of noisy, happy, gum-chewing villagers and put a stop to their cheese festival. (It involves rats.) Can the Junior Monster Scouts and their new friend foil Baron Von Grump’s dastardly plan and convince all the villagers that the calumny that monsters are bad and scary is just propaganda? With this title, McGee kicks off a new series of monster-positive early chapter books, releasing it simultaneously with Book 2, Crash! Bang! Boo! both amiably illustrated by Long with his signature cartoons in black and white. Repetitive language and short chapters married with a positive can-do attitude make this a good choice for little monsters just jumping the gap from easy readers to chapters. Excerpts from the Junior Monster Scout manual and an extensive author’s acknowledgments appear at the close. Characters (other than monsters) appear white.
Readers who like to cuddle up to their monsters will respond to this one. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3677-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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