Readers will cheer this minuscule, bespectacled hero.
The latest in a series, originally published in Spanish, featuring the resourceful and persistent Charlie.
Charlie is exceptionally small, with oversized spectacles, which he acquired in the first installment. Now he’s obsessed with flies. He follows their flight paths so fixedly that his teacher calls him out for daydreaming. Surely the world needs a fly-inspired superhero? Charlie may not be “tough and strong,” but he trains hard. His buddy Big Mike notes that he needs an appropriate costume, so Charlie devises one from bits and bobs, confident that he’ll be “the first superhero in the world to wear eyeglasses!” Charlie is equally certain about his superpower: He can make himself invisible to the human eye. Unfortunately, not to the canine eye: He’s soon terrorized by a dog “the size of an elephant.” What a metamorphosis. Having just been “defeated” by the dog’s gargantuan tongue, Charlie suddenly presents himself as “Fearless Dog-Tamer!” The abrupt, head-spinning ending might baffle some readers, but kids will root for this underdog and enjoy the tongue-in-cheek humor (Charlie genuinely believes that his teacher pays such close attention to him because he’s her favorite student). The quirky line drawings effectively amplify the exaggeration of the text; Charlie’s body is relatively tiny, while his huge, black-framed glasses dominate his small face. Characters have skin the white of the page.
Readers will cheer this minuscule, bespectacled hero. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9788419253958
Page Count: 44
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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