An earnest lesson from the reformed bully’s perspective with a too-easy ending.
A boy learns that being a bully makes him feel like a monster in Freeman’s debut picture book.
When incoming fourth grader Michael starts at a new school, he’s glad that his best friends will be in the same class. But after a few weeks, he misses playing football. Unfortunately, the kids who play the sport at recess are led by Ruffy Butchbang, the meanest, toughest kid in class. Michael decides that in order to play the game, he must get Ruffy’s attention and respect by being mean to his old pals. His plan works, but when he looks in the mirror, he sees a monster. Michael soon apologizes to his friends and realizes “he was a good kid and did not have to prove himself to anyone.” Soon, he shows Ruffy the error of his ways. Freeman uses short phrases that make the text accessible. However, they leave little to the imagination. Michael’s story is told directly and plainly, offering too-simple solutions to complex problems; merely explaining to a bully that they’ll feel better if they’re nice feels unlikely to work in real life. Jones’ textured watercolor illustrations depict diverse children with varying skin tones. However, some depict additional moments that don’t appear in the text, which can be confusing.
An earnest lesson from the reformed bully’s perspective with a too-easy ending.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64543-697-3
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Mascot Books
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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