Better than many at explaining the hows and whys of healthy eating but still a TV show on paper.
The characters from the PBS Kids’ show Fizzy’s Lunch Lab teach kids about the importance of good nutrition.
Professor Fizzy, the master of healthy eating, takes on Fast Food Freddy, greasy food expert. The challenge? The titular cook-off: Each chef will design a meal that three kids will then taste test. While Fizzy works with Avril and Henry, teaching them about the Food Plate, shopping the U at the grocery store and checking labels for nutritional information, Freddy does the opposite; his plate is divided into salty, sweet, greasy and fatty, and he shops the freezer section. The lunch labbers take readers through planning a meal, introducing kitchen safety tips and explaining how to eat a rainbow (of fruits and veggies, not jelly beans, Freddy). Throughout, Sully the Cell interjects to explain how the right foods are used to fuel the body, and Cpl. Cup provides the recipes that help Fizzy win the cook-off: Green Salad with Lime Dressing, Veggilicious Hoagie with Groovy Guacamole, Tortilla Chips and Berry Banana Fro-Yo. With asides about protein, fiber, fats and calcium, Fizzy covers all the bases, and kids can even get some tips on dinner conversation starters and how to set the table. The brightly colored digital illustrations match the TV show to a T, inelegantly making the leap to the page.
Better than many at explaining the hows and whys of healthy eating but still a TV show on paper. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7279-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Formulaic but not stale…even if it does mine previous topical material rather than expand it.
A guide to better behavior—at home, on the playground, in class, and in the library.
Serving as a sort of overview for the series’ 12 previous exercises in behavior modeling, this latest outing opens with a set of badly behaving dinos, identified in an endpaper key and also inconspicuously in situ. Per series formula, these are paired to leading questions like “Does she spit out her broccoli onto the floor? / Does he shout ‘I hate meat loaf!’ while slamming the door?” (Choruses of “NO!” from young audiences are welcome.) Midway through, the tone changes (“No, dinosaurs don’t”), and good examples follow to the tune of positive declarative sentences: “They wipe up the tables and vacuum the floors. / They share all the books and they never slam doors,” etc. Teague’s customary, humongous prehistoric crew, all depicted in exact detail and with wildly flashy coloration, fill both their spreads and their human-scale scenes as their human parents—no same-sex couples but some are racially mixed, and in one the man’s the cook—join a similarly diverse set of sibs and other children in either disapprobation or approving smiles. All in all, it’s a well-tested mix of oblique and prescriptive approaches to proper behavior as well as a lighthearted way to play up the use of “please,” “thank you,” and even “I’ll help when you’re hurt.”
Formulaic but not stale…even if it does mine previous topical material rather than expand it. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-36334-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Tashi, a young Tibetan-American, is greatly concerned for her grandfather, Popola, whose chronic cough weakens him every...
A heartwarming picture book presents age-old Tibetan medical traditions with a modern, positive, community-based twist.
Tashi, a young Tibetan-American, is greatly concerned for her grandfather, Popola, whose chronic cough weakens him every day. Having grown up listening to Popola’s stories, Tashi has learned about the healing powers of flowers in traditional Tibetan medicine and hatches a creative plan to help Popola reconnect with these ancient cures. Unfortunately, she quickly learns that not being in Tibet makes this a challenge. Determined to help her grandfather, Tashi creatively enlists the management of a local flower nursery to let her and her family visit. Although Popola is at first skeptical that this improvised flower cure will work outside of Tibet, he is pleasantly surprised when their community bands together to facilitate his healing. Painterly acrylic-on-canvas illustrations incorporate traditional Tibetan objects such as prayer flags and thangkas, sacred wall hangings, into a modern-day setting, providing a colorful window into both cultures. Additional Tibetan elements, such as Tibetan words and phrases, are sprinkled throughout and are further explained in a brief note on Tibetan-Americans at the end of the text.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60060-425-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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