This engaging account will wear well in any collection.
Using a pair of energetic children as models, Butterworth describes the making of the clothes they wear.
This companion to the author and illustrator’s How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? The Story of Food (2011) is an appealing depiction of the production of clothes of cotton, wool, silk, polyesters, and rubber. The simple narrative is well-organized. Opening with the assumption that readers will have different outfits for different uses, the author presents each material in terms of particular articles of clothing: cotton jeans, wool sweaters, silk party dresses, polyester soccer uniforms and fleeces, rubber boots. Readers will be able to see how the processes for making fabric are similar in spite of the difference in plant or animal sources. The explanation is simple and clear, and the steps are illustrated in mixed-media images filled with amusing details. While an ethnically diverse range of human workers are involved along the way, one or the other of the two children pictured on the cover (a dark-skinned girl with straight brown hair and a blond, Caucasian boy) is always shown wearing the finished results. The endpapers display a satisfying array of clothing, from bikinis, vests, and warm winter caps to formalwear. Butterworth includes a reminder of ways to recycle outgrown or unneeded clothing, a short bibliography, and index.
This engaging account will wear well in any collection. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7750-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
A delightful story of a cross-racial friendship between two kids who realize how much they need each other and the passions...
STEM becomes STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) as Melia, an inventor, and Jo, a dancer, discover that they’re a dynamic team.
Melia loves to invent things and tinker all day long in her backyard. Then Jo moves in next door and dances her way into Melia’s inventing space. With total disregard for the sanctity of Melia’s creations, Jo flips Melia’s cereal-bowl radio onto her head to wear it as a hat, sticks a rope of black licorice into the neck of an unfinished robot, and chucks a paper airplane—that Melia is still designing—into the air. Although she’s miffed at Jo’s invasion of her space, Melia realizes that Jo has inadvertently solved some puzzling conundrums. When Melia shows Jo what a difference she has made, Jo refuses to partner with Melia…until one of Melia’s inventions saves her. Their contrasting personalities are effectively delineated in the retro-styled illustrations: Brown-skinned Jo wears a pinky-purple tutu, a pearl necklace, and feathers in her hair; blonde-haired, peachy-skinned Melia wears shorts and an orange cape and boots. The backmatter provides instructions for how to make Melia’s paper airplane and explains the benefits of turning STEM into STEAM.
A delightful story of a cross-racial friendship between two kids who realize how much they need each other and the passions that each brings to the friendship. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-328-91626-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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