A picture book for The Office–loving adults to read by themselves.
An earnest but incompetent kid strives to bring order to his elementary school classroom in this picture-book companion to the TV show The Office.
When Michael Scott is appointed class Line Leader at Dunder Mifflin Elementary, he has his mom fashion him a sippy cup that reads “World’s Best Line Leader.” A kid named Dwight observes the chaos in the classroom—which is mystifyingly devoid of adults for the entire book—and tells Michael he might need some help. Other kids agree. Accepting Dwight as Assistant to the Line Leader, Michael proceeds to tell Angela to plan a party to be held in five minutes’ time and then struggles to fulfill his function by lining the kids up. Several pages of ineffectual lining-up later, Pam suggests Michael ask for help. A brainstorming session yields several ideas, including “beet harvesting,…pretzel toppings, cuteness, [and the] buddy system.” As Michael surveys his classmates happily eating cake, he concludes, “I lead a great class.” In Demmer’s cartoon illustrations, all the kids have a bobblehead look, with wide, staring eyes; most, including Michael, present White. Periodically the narrative stops to allow one or two students to break the fourth wall and comment on the action in some fashion. These interruptions are in keeping with the TV show’s formula but do not provide enough scaffolding to allow child readers to understand what’s going on; nonsensical dialogue (“A mistake plus Keleven equals seven!”) likewise excludes children from the joke. Adult readers with familiarity with the TV series may find it hilarious. Readers with no familiarity—that is, just about every single kid in this book’s putative audience—will not. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.4-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 51.5% of actual size.)
A picture book for The Office–loving adults to read by themselves. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-42838-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
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
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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