Perceptively encourages readers to express emotions honestly to themselves and others.
Best friends Camper (as in “happy Camper”) and Clam (as in “happy as a”) explore a wide range of feelings in a colorfully metafictive outing.
Camper and Clam introduce themselves in the yellow opening pages. Camper, a white child in a scouting uniform, dances in a field of daisies; Clam, a land-going bivalve, bakes a friendship cake. When Camper proceeds to selfishly eat all the cake, Clam is hurt and upset. Opening a door in what looks like yellow endpapers, Camper enters The Sad Book and finds Clam in a blue setting amid broken hearts, clouds, and rain. Camper tries to coax Clam out of the sad pages, but Clam continues to sulk, prompting a miffed Camper to walk through the door leading to the red landscape of The Angry Book. Amid the red pages, Camper confesses, “I’m angry that I can’t make you happy and scared we won’t be friends anymore.” Clam replies, “I’m scared too, Camper. Let’s go in here,” and they enter the green pages of The Scared Book. There, they realize that as long as they are together, feeling afraid is not so bad. Resolution occurs when they enter The Feelings Book, a rainbow environment where a party with all emotions is taking place. Black-outlined colorful cartoons maintain a quirky silliness throughout the dialogue-only narrative. Secondary characters Trombone, Wet Hen, and (fraidy) Cat add an extra layer of fun.
Perceptively encourages readers to express emotions honestly to themselves and others. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-47125-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Gently models kindness and respect—positive behavior that can be applied daily.
A group of young “dinosauruses” go out into the world on their own.
A fuchsia little Hugasaurus and her Pappysaur (both of whom resemble Triceratops) have never been apart before, but Hugasaurus happily heads off with lunchbox in hand and “wonder in her heart” to make new friends. The story has a first-day-of-school feeling, but Hugasaurus doesn’t end up in a formal school environment; rather, she finds herself on a playground with other little prehistoric creatures, though no teacher or adult seems to be around. At first, the new friends laugh and play. But Hugasaurus’ pals begin to squabble, and play comes to a halt. As she wonders what to do, a fuzzy platypus playmate asks some wise questions (“What…would your Pappy say to do? / What makes YOU feel better?”), and Hugasaurus decides to give everyone a hug—though she remembers to ask permission first. Slowly, good humor is restored and play begins anew with promises to be slow to anger and, in general, to help create a kinder world. Short rhyming verses occasionally use near rhyme but also include fun pairs like ripples and double-triples. Featuring cozy illustrations of brightly colored creatures, the tale sends a strong message about appropriate and inappropriate ways to resolve conflict, the final pages restating the lesson plainly in a refrain that could become a classroom motto. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Gently models kindness and respect—positive behavior that can be applied daily. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-82869-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the...
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike.
Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end.
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87083-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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