A winning combo of creative craft and absorbing story.
A Japanese American boy literally makes new friends and embarks on a wild journey.
Mike is bored. It’s raining, and he has no one to play with, so he decides to set off on an adventure. Going alone would be no fun, so he makes a friend using origami—a paper dog he names Zoe. They soon find themselves in the jungle. After exploring for some time, they get lost, but an origami monkey comes to their rescue. Together, the new friends head to the sea, where Mike folds an origami boat. The trio sail to a mysterious island, where they must face an oni, a grumpy, troll-like creature. Based on the Japanese folktale “Momotarō,” this is a quick but fun escapade. The unseen narrator poses questions at critical junctures (“How would they find a way out?”); the origami directions offer answers. Seven origami projects are included, with clearly expressed written and visual instructions. Mike and the page background are drawn in a minimalistic cartoon style, while his friends are folded out of actual origami paper, with cartoon faces imposed on them. The illustrations rely on only a handful of colors, matching the hues of the origami paper. The book opens with helpful information on common origami folds and symbols; it also includes 28 sheets of origami paper and a recipe for gyoza (folded dumplings).
A winning combo of creative craft and absorbing story. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781523526109
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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