A fun-filled ride.
A not-so-simple errand turns into a visit to distant planets and great adventures for Simon the Squirrel and his friends.
With his rather eclectic shopping list in hand and some good friends, Simon flies through the universe in a hot air balloon. They head for the moon to buy some cheese—the most important ingredient—but they are blown off course by a high-jumping cow, so they go to Mars instead to buy some of the items on his list and then on to Saturn, Uranus and the others to purchase the rest. Along the way, they encounter the obligatory little green man, a hairy pink monster and other creatures of varying idiosyncrasies. He arrives home without the cheese, but his pals have it, and they all have a pizza party to celebrate. Bently charges up the silliness with singsong verses in aabb rhyme that dash madly through the escapades. There’s a charming mixture of American and British vernacular, and young American readers will find sufficient contextual clues for understanding “clamber,” “cross” and “daft,” and there’s “Mom” and “fries” for those on this side of the pond. In Matsuoka’s bright, lively, stylized illustrations, most of the animals bear little resemblance to their real-life counterparts, but they fly across the pages in perfect tandem with the goofy spirit of the text.
A fun-filled ride. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4677-3449-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Andersen Press USA
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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
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