A sweet and playful yet serious story.
In Rusu’s picture book, a young girl’s visit to her grandma’s goes wrong at every turn thanks to an obsessive compulsiveness that manifests as an imaginary robot friend.
The narrator, a young redheaded girl, wears robot-themed socks every day, and in doing so imagines a red robot companion constantly by her side: “My robot is AMAZING! / She makes things go just right / and always gets things done her way / from morning until night.” The robot is very particular about routines, which becomes problematic when the girl has to spend a day at her grandma’s. Grandma has the wrong type of soap, the wrong toys, and the wrong color of plate for the cookies: “I sneak a look at the pile of treats / on a blue plate by the sink. / BZZT. BOOP. BRRRR.‘NO! NO! NO!’ / ‘WE ONLY USE THE PINK!’” Will Grandma find a way to placate Robot and salvage the visit? Rusu and illustrator Morón tell a cute and relatable story, depicting not only the girl’s “difficult” behavior but also the condition that underlies it—expressed by way of the oversize, exaggeratedly emotive robot. Morón’s pen-and-ink images capture the protagonists’ personalities as well as the incidental action against uncluttered backdrops. Rusu’s text is rhythmically awkward at times and derives little benefit from being enslaved to an ABCB rhyme pattern. Nonetheless, the book deftly conveys its message and will pull young readers along.
A sweet and playful yet serious story.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780829457094
Page Count: 32
Publisher: 4U2B Books & Media
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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