A sympathetic protagonist finds common ground with a diverse group of friends.
A shy but imaginative girl struggles to make friends until she overcomes her fears in Daniel-Ayoade’s picture book, illustrated by newcomer Logina.
Third grader Kayla sits alone every lunch period. She wants to approach Naomi, Samantha, and Bianca to ask whether she can sit with them, but she’s afraid; her shyness makes her hold back. She thinks of her grandmother’s advice: “Face your fear, Kayla. What’s the worst that could happen?” Unfortunately, Kayla’s imagination is so vivid, she can come up with a lot of horrible results. She sits alone, and later, she avoids finding a partner in gym by hiding in the bathroom. At home, Kayla confesses to her brother, Eric, that she’s been avoiding her schoolmates because she fears what might happen: “Eric grunted a reply. He had autism and didn’t speak, but she knew he meant to say, ‘I know how you feel. Next time, take a deep breath and try to stay calm.’ ” The next day, when Naomi hands Kayla a party invitation, Kayla breathes deeply and accepts. At the party, Kayla soon forgets to feel shy and—with the encouragement of her new friend and an incentive to win a gift for her brother—finds the courage to sing for the guests. Some pages have just a couple of lines of text and others 10 or more, but Daniel-Ayoade’s straightforward narrative is inviting, even in the more text-dense pages. The open-ended titular question is answered in Kayla’s own imaginings, depicted in Logina’s soft-edged cartoonlike illustrations. While Kayla’s fears of being mocked are understandable, her imagined consequences finally become so ridiculous, as comically depicted by Logina, that readers will laugh along with her. Kayla and another girl have different shades of brown skin and curly hair, a third girl is pale and blonde, and Naomi is depicted as Asian American, but the text doesn’t call attention to the cast’s ethnicities (beyond giving Naomi the surname “Lau,” a variant on the Chinese “Liu”), making their differences feel natural.
A sympathetic protagonist finds common ground with a diverse group of friends.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77701-355-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Jewels & Pearls Publishing Ltd.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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