Next book

WHO'S THE GROSSEST OF THEM ALL?

Since the most natural audience for a grossness contest is typically past picture books, subject and format seem to be a...

The latest in the unquenchable who’s-the-most horrible, hideous, revolting, repulsive, disgusting, gross, and vile genre.

Goblin wakes in his cave. “Who’s the nastiest, most horrible creature in the forest?” he asks the mirror. “I am!” Not if his nattiness has anything to say about it: top hat, vest, string tie. He takes a neighborhood stroll and relishes how the witch and the wolf recoil at his nastiness. He thinks. Coming to a bridge he hears a challenge to his boasting. “I, Troll, am the nastiest, most horrible creature in the forest.” The dialogue doesn’t even offer an exclamation mark, but what readers do get is a pair of yellow eyes in the darkness of the span’s shadows: Ben-Day–dot yellow eyes, as in the Sunday funnies, a conspicuous quirk that characterizes all the art. Goblin and Troll ask a couple passers-by who is more grotesque. A wayfarer chooses the troll (because he is “puke-purple”); an old woman chooses the goblin (due to his underarm farts). Along comes a little white girl in a red hood. Pondering the question, she mines her nozzle for a good booger. She carelessly gets some on her chin, then swipes the remainder down her sweater. Thankfully, she does not eat any. Who’s the grossest? Nothing beats a booger.

Since the most natural audience for a grossness contest is typically past picture books, subject and format seem to be a classic mismatch. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-553-51190-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 14


  • New York Times Bestseller


  • IndieBound Bestseller

Next book

DRAGONS LOVE TACOS

From the Dragons Love Tacos series

A wandering effort, happy but pointless.

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 14


  • New York Times Bestseller


  • IndieBound Bestseller

The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.

Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.

A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: June 14, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012

Next book

HOW TO CATCH A GARDEN FAIRY

A SPRINGTIME ADVENTURE

From the How To Catch… series

The premise is worn gossamer thin, and the joke stopped being funny, if it ever was, long ago.

A fairy tending their garden manages to survive a gaggle of young intruders.

In halting cadences typical of the long-running—and increasingly less amusing—How To Catch… series, the startled mite—never seen face-on in Elkerton’s candy-colored pictures and indeterminate of gender—wonders about the racially diverse interlopers: “Do they know that I can grant wishes? / Or that a new fairy is born when they giggle?” The visual action rather belies the sweetness of the verses, the palette, the bright flowers, and the multicolored resident zebras and unicorns, as after repeated, elaborately designed efforts to trap or even shoot (with a peashooter) the fairy come to naught, the laughing children are escorted out of the garden beneath a rising moon. The encounter ends on a (perhaps unconsciously) ominous note. “Hope they find their way back sometime,” the butterfly-winged narrator concludes. “And just maybe next time they’ll stay!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

The premise is worn gossamer thin, and the joke stopped being funny, if it ever was, long ago. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: March 28, 2023

ISBN: 9781728263205

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Close Quickview