A fun, well-illustrated book for newly independent readers to enjoy on their own or for lap readers to enjoy with a grown-up.
A return to the wild, Seussian world of Helms (Outside, Inside, 2015) with a silhouette-guessing game featuring a refrain that will have youngsters chiming in.
Someone new has arrived in Ponderville (population 19). Two of the town’s tiny, winged residents find a gift from the newcomer, AlphaBetty, to their friend Birdie (who appeared in Helms’ last book). It’s a silhouette portrait, and the pair decide to see if they can find out who it is—“who’s new.” They compare the picture to the silhouette of a real-life creature, asking readers the refrain, “Is this Who’s New?” That first character is quickly revealed to be Mumu, one of Ponderville’s residents. Mumu joins the two small creatures as they repeat the game, and they soon add wobbly-looking creature Orand to the quest. Readers of Outside, Inside will recognize the next character: it’s Birdie, the recipient of the gift, who joins the search. The team approaches a wall where the rest of Ponderville’s residents sit, and they’re all shown in silhouette to give readers a chance to compare them to the gift. Although younger readers may struggle to sound out all the strange names (such as “Verdge,” “Mariochi,” and “Poxi”), they’re fun enough to say that they’re likely to giggle. The characters despair of ever finding the new resident until Hap points out a new house and a matching silhouette appears in the door under the repeated refrain. Young readers can then sort through the strange characters’ celebratory phrases, including a grouchy “HUMPH.” Overall, the text in this book is a little denser than in Helms’ previous offering, but the large-sized words, set aside in boxes, and the repeating vocabulary will be encouraging to newly independent readers. The illustrations, though, are the true draw here, and the fun black silhouettes are marvelously offset by their colorful matches. The friendly looking characters are all wonderfully weird, and Helms’ imaginative landscape will be appealing enough for youngsters that they’ll want to visit it over and over again.
A fun, well-illustrated book for newly independent readers to enjoy on their own or for lap readers to enjoy with a grown-up.Pub Date: April 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9963397-2-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Set Free Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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