Readers will enjoy spotting a pile of books, a basketball, and a skateboard among Daniela’s personal cargo as they go...
An intrepid redhead à la Pippi Longstocking sails the seven seas tracking down the most feared pirate ship in all the world—the Black Croc.
In this piratical offering from Spain, Daniela is determined to join the Black Croc’s nefarious crew, and nothing the captain demands quells her indomitable spirit. Swim to the bottom of the sea and back again with a giant squid—no problem. One hundred squats while hoisting a treasure-filled chest overhead—bring it on. Jump into a croc-infested pit—piece of cake. Be a pirate—nope! Girls can’t be pirates. Chauvinistic Capt. Choppylobe will not be budged, so his commendably diverse crew takes a vote. Hooray for Capt. Daniela! The Black Croc is still the scourge of the seven seas…and an equal-opportunity outfit to boot. Isern’s salty (but a trifle long) tale reads equally smoothly in both the original Spanish (publishing in the U.S. simultaneously) and English translation, with the exception of the odd-sounding captain’s name. Orejacortada could have been translated as Sliced-ear, Nicked-ear, Chopped-ear, etc. Gómez’s exuberant and colorfully detailed illustrations carry the sagging midpoint forward and reinforce the Pippi Longstocking motif. From Daniela’s superhuman strength to her very own treasure chest, echoes of the Swedish icon haunt the text. But even the grimacing Black Croc’s prow smiles by story’s end despite the buccaneers’ heavy-handed if praiseworthy speech about fairness.
Readers will enjoy spotting a pile of books, a basketball, and a skateboard among Daniela’s personal cargo as they go adventuring with her and her scurvy crew. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-84-17123-12-3
Page Count: 44
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
