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ARE YOU SCARED, DARTH VADER?

Never underestimate the power of a child, even against the Dark Side.

An unseen narrator attempts to discover what might scare Darth Vader.

Lord Vader scoffs at the typical Halloween beasties. Neither a wolf nor a man scares him, so a wolfman won’t do it; his armor will protect him from a vampire’s bite; and as long as the ghost isn’t Obi-Wan Kenobi’s or Yoda’s, he’s fine. Though he’s not afraid of a witch, learning that she might curse him makes him morose: “I am already cursed.” Unflappable until now, the Dark Lord finally grows agitated and then increasingly annoyed (but still not scared) when the costumed kids who have been trying to scare him remove their masks and use him as a jungle gym. But even when they leave, there’s still one left: the one who’s holding this book and who’s about to close it. That does it! À la Grover in There’s a Monster at the End of This Book, the finally fearful Darth Vader tries everything to get the reader to stop turning pages, and the narrator just rubs it in, comparing being closed in the book to being trapped in carbonite. Clever design places the narrator’s text in yellow, Vader’s sarcastic responses in white on black speech bubbles. The image of the staid Lord Vader fighting off hordes of children will keep kids in stitches.

Never underestimate the power of a child, even against the Dark Side. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 3, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4847-0497-4

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm

Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018

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HOW TO CATCH A GINGERBREAD MAN

From the How To Catch… series

A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.

The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.

Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.

A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021

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SNOW PLACE LIKE HOME

From the Diary of an Ice Princess series

A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.

Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.

The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.

A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019

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