Sweet but less than memorable.
Helping a sick pal feel better can be tough.
A youngster describes a friendship with a yeti. The unusual bond has advantages: Yeti can reach the highest branches to pick the tastiest fruit, and, when sitting on Yeti’s shoulders while watching an outdoor movie, the child has “the best seat in the house.” Having a yeti BFF can be challenging, however. Every year Yeti gets a bad cold, characterized by frightful chills, coughs, and sneezes. This year, the young narrator is determined to cure him and stocks up on supplies. The child’s preparations—sweaters, blankets, even a hot tub—don’t work. The youngster persists, proffering hot cocoa, a seat before the fireplace, and “cross-continental trips to tropical islands!” (Since our protagonist is a kid, this doesn’t work out; an imaginary journey suffices.) Eventually, the narrator abandons hope for a cure, but then inspiration hits: giving Yeti his own “best seat in the house”—sitting with him in a makeshift tent and watching TV together, surrounded by some of the child’s “cures.” This thin story is somewhat light on plot, and the conclusion falls a bit flat. Still, it emphasizes friendship, which many readers will appreciate. The concept of a relationship between human and cryptid may spark interest in some children, but it’s not well developed. The cartoonish illustrations are lively, and this blue yeti is endearing and non-menacing. The girl is light-skinned.
Sweet but less than memorable. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781645952497
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pixel+Ink
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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BOOK REVIEW
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying.
A story-reading dragon—what’s not to like?
Duncan the Dragon loves to read. But the stories so excite him, his imagination catches fire—and so do his books, leaving him wondering about the endings. Does the captain save the ship? Do aliens conquer the Earth? Desperate to reach the all-important words “The End” (“like the last sip of a chocolate milk shake”), he tries reading in the refrigerator, in front of a bank of electric fans, and even in a bathtub filled with ice. Nothing works. He decides to ask a friend to read to him, but the raccoon, possum, and bull all refuse. Weeping, Duncan is ready to give up, but one of his draconic tears runs “split-splat into a mouse,” a book-loving mouse! Together they battle sea monsters, dodge icebergs, and discover new lands, giving rise to a fast friendship. Driscoll’s friendly illustrations are pencil sketches painted in Adobe Photoshop; she varies full-bleed paintings with vignettes surrounded by white space, imaginary scenes rendered in monochrome to set them apart. Duncan himself is green, winged, and scaly, but his snout is unthreateningly bovine, and he wears red sneakers with his shoelaces untied—a nicely vulnerable touch. Though there are lots of unusual friendship stories in picture books, the vivid colors, expressive faces, and comic details make this one likely to be a storytime hit.
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75507-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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BOOK REVIEW
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