A real slice of family life, the sweet with the bitter. (Fiction. 5-8)
Sadie and Ratz, Hannah’s menacing hands, help her to handle her sibling rivalry in this piercingly intelligent foray into chapter books by much-awarded teen author Hartnett.
Hannah lives with her parents and her stick insect, Pin. She would like to have a real pet, but all she has is the disappointing Baby Boy, who is the object of Sadie and Ratz’s anger. When he does the things little brothers do (going into her room, changing the channel or using markers), Sadie and Ratz wake up, jump onto Baby Boy’s head and rub his ears off. One day, the game is changed when Baby Boy starts acting like a crafty 4-year-old. He spills milk, writes on the wall and breaks a valuable timepiece but blames everything on his sister’s naughty hands. When Pin is found missing a leg after Hannah sends her hands on vacation, the parents start to see the truth. The tale is accompanied by warm, expressive gestural charcoal drawings on every page that add much to the story, drawing readers' eyes to the characters' real feelings. Ending on the hopeful note that Baby Boy’s hands and Hannah’s hands are going to be friends, this is one story of sibling rivalry that seems realistic. The kids might not be friends, but their naughty hands can be! For big sisters and Baby Boys adjusting to each other.
A real slice of family life, the sweet with the bitter. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: March 27, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5315-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
Long-winded but uplifting nonetheless.
Comedian, singer, and YouTube star Rainbow urges readers not to let others dim their light.
Young Randy Rainbow lives life out loud. While his classmates wear “dull blue jeans and drab T-shirts,” he sports “brightly colored three-piece suits and sparkly bow ties,” paints his nails, and listens to Broadway albums. After being called a “weirdo” at school, he tries to tamp down his sparkly side. While helping his grandmother sort through some of her old belongings, he stumbles across a pair of magical cat-eye glasses that, according to Nanny, allow whoever puts them on to “be anything and anywhere [they] want.” After rocking the glasses at school and a number of other locations, Randy becomes popular and confident, but when he breaks them on the way to a birthday party, he’s despondent. Nanny reveals that the glasses never had any powers; the magic was in Randy all along. While the message about being true to oneself is an important one, the unevenly paced, wordy text often tells more than it shows. At times it feels as though the author’s trying to pad out a somewhat thin story; multiple examples of Randy sporting his new specs in a variety of scenarios drag quite a bit. Swirls of pink feature prominently in MacGibbon’s cartoon illustrations. Randy and Nanny are pale-skinned; hints in the text suggest that they may be Jewish.
Long-winded but uplifting nonetheless. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781250900777
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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