Yes, readers, you too can be whatever you want, for Halloween and in life.
When Birdie can’t decide what she would like to be for Halloween, a trip to the art museum is inspirational.
Birdie loves everything about fall, especially Halloween and dressing up. She’s been a robot and a mummy princess in years past. But now she just can’t decide. Her friends share their costume ideas, and even her dog, Monster, has an idea of his own. In a masterful spread that shows the exhibits in one room of the museum, Rim portrays Birdie’s delight in the paintings, photos, and sculptures around her; labels, arrows, and short captions tell who they are and why they are famous: Betsy Ross, Neil Armstrong, Joan of Arc, Amelia Earhart, Sandra Day O’Connor, Martin Luther King Jr., William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, George Washington, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Leonardo da Vinci. While Birdie’s decision isn’t instantaneous—she first asks her mom if she can really be anything she wants, and she imagines herself as several of those famous figures—her final choice is fitting both for Birdie, a white redhead with strong ideas, and for our current political milieu. Rim’s watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, and collage illustrations suit the fall theme, the colors and patterns blending to create nice, autumnal tableaux.
Yes, readers, you too can be whatever you want, for Halloween and in life. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-40746-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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