We cannot tell a lie: This is an alarming misrepresentation of libraries.
Facts are facts…except when they’re not.
When siblings Mikayla and Drew head off to their local ’brary to find some books, the “facts” presented seem unusual: Trees eat squirrels, lava is really cheese, and volcanoes are in fact massive fondue pots. Their father seems skeptical, “But if it’s in a book, if it’s something you read… / then maybe it means that it has to be true.” Taking advice from similarly styled books, the father employs some questionable parenting habits, like feeding the kids candy and ice cream for breakfast and trying to teach 6-year-old Mikayla to drive. Eventually, the family realizes that the books they borrowed were from a “lie-brary” and that “we can’t believe everything that we read.” Cultivating healthy skepticism can be a good thing, but the messaging is off-kilter. Library workers strive to ensure that their books are up to date and don’t contain erroneous information. The American Library Association even offers free webinars to help train the public to stop fake news, so the depiction of the “Liebrarian” as gleefully scheming in the background paints an inaccurate, potentially harmful picture. In a world where many struggle with the difference between facts and propaganda, this book sends a disturbing message of distrust. Backmatter discussing the difference between the real and the imagined would have been helpful but was not included. In the loose-lined illustrations, both the family and the Liebrarian are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
We cannot tell a lie: This is an alarming misrepresentation of libraries. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-953458-60-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Yeehoo Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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