YAAAS! This lunch bunch serves pure silliness.
Anthropomorphic foodstuffs campaign for their own excellence.
Shaskan goes for the goofy with this graphic-early-reader series opener. Each of the book’s five chapters revolves around Pizza and Taco, who are such “BEST-BESTIES!!!” that they finish each other’s sentences. One day, the friends—who are literally a slice of cheese pizza and a beef taco—come to a stalemate over who is the best. They ultimately put it to a vote, but Pizza—aka “Cheaty McCheato”—deliberately misreads the ballot. They bring in another set of BFFs, Hot Dog and Hamburger, to settle things once and for all. But what does being “the best” mean anyway? Does it have anything to do with fist bumps or butt bumps? If so, Pizza and Taco are solid. Though appropriately repetitive, the plot packs a contagiously zany sense of humor that pairs well with series like Tedd Arnold, Martha Hamilton, and Mitch Weiss’ Noodleheads and Ben Clanton’s Narwhal and Jelly. Shaskan’s distinctive character design combines cartoon illustration with photography, augmenting the humor. Recycled catchphrases like “AWESOME!” and “YAAAS” keep the lightness going—although the pair’s constant dismissal of Hamburger is a little disconcerting. The sparse backgrounds—most often a blue polka-dot sky set above simple shapes—help make the white speech bubbles readable. The well-paced, easy-to-follow structure keeps the panel count at six or fewer per page.
YAAAS! This lunch bunch serves pure silliness. (Graphic early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12330-0
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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