Sweet but substantial, just like a balanced breakfast should be.
An anthropomorphic, superpowered young pancake faces her greatest challenge yet: babysitting.
Secretly saving the world as Super Pancake has left Peggy Pancake little time for doing homework. She’ll be spending spring break completing a missed assignment. Even worse, her parents have signed her up for a weeklong babysitting job. Her charges, the Mini Muffin quintuplets, leave her exhausted, and after Peggy and the kids stop by her friend Professor Egg’s lab, things get even worse. The littlest quintuplet, Minnie, pilfers the professor’s doom laser and accidentally turns herself into a mega-sized muffin. Now Super Pancake and her trusty sidekick, Kid Croissant, must save the day once again. It’s a fairly straightforward tale, complete with a third-act pep talk from Peggy’s pal Stanley Bacon that motivates her and Kid Croissant, but the breakfast food–themed characters and setting infuse the story with whimsy and humor. The Pancake family house is shaped like a giant skillet, while their car is a bottle of maple syrup; before sending her off on her babysitting gig, Peggy’s mom tells her to “break an egg!” Despite the larger-than-life superheroics and quirky setting, Peggy also contends with more down-to-earth problems, such as wrangling her rambunctious charges and dealing with burnout. Alwar’s energetic cartoon illustrations are both action packed and adorable. A quick recap of the first book will make it easy for newcomers to the series to jump right in.
Sweet but substantial, just like a balanced breakfast should be. (Graphic fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9780593378489
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
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
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