A straightforward, if perhaps overly simple, early chapter book about middle childhood.
A young girl examines her role as a middle child on a trip to the beach with her chaotic family in Prior’s novel for young readers.
Emma isn’t big, and she isn’t little: She’s right in the middle, with two brothers, one older and one younger. When she and her family go on vacation to the beach, Emma decides she’s no longer interested in squishing between her siblings in the car with none of the privileges of her older brother, nicknamed Big, and none of the coddling of her younger brother, known as Little. No, Emma is going to be big simply by acting as if she’s grown up, even if it means abandoning her best friend and fellow middle child, Wes the Best, while on vacation. She puts on lipstick and speaks like adults she’s seen on TV, but her mature act ends in disaster. Next, Emma tries a new tack and decides to pretend to be little instead; that doesn’t go according to plan either. Emma is at a loss as to what she should do next when assistance with her “dilEmma” comes from an unexpected corner. The solution is fairly simple and predictable, but it teaches a valuable lesson about embracing one’s personality and learning to appreciate what makes one unique, and it holds together well. That said, the story could have used some fleshing out, as its length is awkwardly short for the presumed 6- or 7-year-old audience, who may already be gravitating toward longer books, such as the Jasmine Toguchi series by Debbi Michiko Florence or the JD the Kid Barberbooks by J. Dillard. Kissi’s full-color cover and black-and-white cartoonlike illustrations depict Emma and her family as Black.
A straightforward, if perhaps overly simple, early chapter book about middle childhood.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-947159-60-0
Page Count: 66
Publisher: One Elm Books
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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