A clever premise made (nearly) stellar by its art.
Two unlikely friends crash into each other’s orbit.
Haylee makes wishes at every opportunity. Her favorite method is wishing on falling stars—if she is quick enough to see them. When Haylee has a “very special wish” one day, she looks for a star and wishes “as hard as she could” to find a friend. An anthropomorphic comet (aptly named Comet) plummets down and reveals having made the very same wish. They become fast friends in the two short stories that follow. In “The Friend Ship” the pair finds a “build-your-own Friend Ship kit” and gets to work, each building half of the vehicle. In “The Surprise,” Haylee gifts Comet with a flower to celebrate their “three-day friend-iversary,” and they build a garden of comets. Marcero’s intricate linework and lush yellows and blues effectively translate her skills as a picture-book illustrator into the graphic early reader format. But the night scenes are where her use of colors and shadows flies off the charts. Playful dialogue and sweet truisms about friendship mimic many of the odd-couple narratives out there, but the comet-human pairing is mighty distinctive. Using a mix of captions and speech bubbles, the comics format never exceeds 10 panels per double-page spread. Haylee’s skin and straight hair are tinted blue while Comet is bright yellow with a bulbous, orange nose. A sequel will release in October 2021. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A clever premise made (nearly) stellar by its art. (Graphic early reader. 6-9)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77439-2
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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