A clever, silly, and giggle-out-loud funny adventure.
When tiny creatures commandeer Sebastian’s room, everything goes haywire in this incredibly clever, beautifully designed picture book from debut author/illustrator Forbes.
“Some-Things are tiny, but you can see them if you look closely,” the story begins, filling the entire page with this single sentence in bubble letters of varying sizes. Several Some-Things live inside Sebastian’s house (only just visible in their bright colors, hiding inside the vent), and they invite every Some-Thing they know to come to a party. The multihued, multitextured creatures soon fill Sebastian’s room, much to Sebastian’s dismay. After two clever, almost-rhyming two-page spreads of the different types and shapes of Some-Things Sebastian encounters, the boy demands they leave his room. But—they protest—not without cake! Although there seems to be a Some-Thing for everything, not a one of them knows how to bake a cake, so they turn to their resident magician, who turns the entire house into a cake. After the Some-Things and all the human neighbors help to eat the house, the Some-Things helpfully build a new, grows-with-water home for Sebastian’s family, leading to one last visual joke in the endpapers. Forbes has designed the book so that the words themselves become part of the pictures, and the collage-textured illustrations, reminiscent of the Pinkalicious series, will have readers giggling. Sebastian’s misadventures are sure to tickle funny bones, and young readers will be looking at their bedroom vents for their own Some-Things.
A clever, silly, and giggle-out-loud funny adventure.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5255-1894-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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