When will Fly and Spider get their own school stories? (Early reader. 5-7)
Cronin and Bliss’ droll humor come to the early-reader set courtesy of Houran and Nez.
Mrs. Mulch is the best teacher Worm has ever had. So, when they have a substitute so she can take the day off for her birthday, Worm just has to think up a present that will be more spectacular than those of his classmates. His best friends, Spider and Fly, try to help, but their ideas just aren’t appropriate for worms. But when they take him kite flying (literally) to cheer him up, they spy an apple from their vantage point. Will it be rotten enough? Will they be able to get it to Worm’s school? Will Worm be able to pull a birthday card out of thin air? Nez’s illustrations in the style of Bliss entertain, his characters sporting accessories and facial expressions that will be quite familiar to readers. Houran and Nez have transferred all the elements that made the Diary series so successful—the slightly gross humor, the three friends and their talents playing off one another, and the similarity to real human plights—to this early reader, continuing the trio’s adventures for kids just striking out on their own.
When will Fly and Spider get their own school stories? (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: July 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-208705-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.
The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work.
A young spinach hater becomes a spinach lover after she has to grow her own in a class garden.
Unable to trade away the seed packet she gets from her teacher for tomatoes, cukes or anything else more palatable, Sylvia reluctantly plants and nurtures a pot of the despised veggie then transplants it outside in early spring. By the end of school, only the plot’s lettuce, radishes and spinach are actually ready to eat (talk about a badly designed class project!)—and Sylvia, once she nerves herself to take a nibble, discovers that the stuff is “not bad.” She brings home an armful and enjoys it from then on in every dish: “And that was the summer Sylvia Spivens said yes to spinach.” Raff uses unlined brushwork to give her simple cartoon illustrations a pleasantly freehand, airy look, and though Pryor skips over the (literally, for spinach) gritty details in both the story and an afterword, she does cover gardening basics in a simple and encouraging way.
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9836615-1-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Readers to Eaters
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
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