British television writer MacRae’s first foray into picture books personifies the source of a few common childhood mishaps as “The Opposite,” a doughy, beak-nosed imp who does just the reverse of what little Nate intends. The creature, having already delayed Nate’s getting up, reappears atop a counter in a saucepan hat at breakfast. Nate, always a careful pourer, watches as, “instead of the milk pouring down, it poured up, splashing against the ceiling and then dripping down all over the tablecloth.” At school, during a chaotic painting session, Nate discovers how to outsmart The Opposite—by saying the opposite of what’s needed. “The work I have done today is messy and untidy,” he opines. Voilà! “Nate’s painting was now as tidy and perfect as you please.” Odriozola’s staid watercolor-and-ink pictures depict curiously expressionless white faces with tiny eyes and feverish red cheeks. Nate’s leonine profile becomes a wide oval full on, with a mere dash for a nose. Despite a sunny color palate and appealing patterns, the mannered art flattens, rather than elevates, this one-joke text. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2010
ISBN: 1-56145-371-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
A sweet iteration of the “Big Bad Wolf Mellows Out” theme. Here, an old wolf does some soul searching and then learns to like vegetable stew after a half-frozen lamb appears on his doorstep, falls asleep in his arms, then wakes to give him a kiss. “I can’t eat a lamb who needs me! I might get heartburn!” he concludes. Clad in striped leggings and a sleeveless pullover decorated with bands of evergreens, the wolf comes across as anything but dangerous, and the lamb looks like a human child in a fleecy overcoat. No dreams are likely to be disturbed by this book, but hardened members of the Oshkosh set might prefer the more credible predators and sense of threat in John Rocco’s Wolf! Wolf! (March 2007) or Delphine Perrot’s Big Bad Wolf and Me (2006). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-58925-067-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
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