An imaginative, quirky tale about perseverance and the importance of patience.
A young inventor’s negative words manifest as monsters in this picture book.
Sammy, who has brown skin and purple hair, loves crafting gizmos but gets frustrated when the outcome isn’t successful. After she gets zapped turning on her latest device, Sammy utters discouraging words, which create a “Thought Monster,” a scowling creature who generates chaos in her workshop. When Sammy’s invention malfunctions, sparking earthquakelike shaking, she voices self-deprecating statements—including “I’m not smart enough!”—causing more monsters to emerge. Sammy mulls quitting but finds inspiration when she reads a note of encouragement she had written to herself on the gadget’s blueprint. After she acknowledges that pessimism prevents her from “becoming an amazing inventor” and that mistakes are an inevitable part of the process, the monsters disappear. Soon, Sammy’s diligence and dedication pay off; the gizmo (a piece to a rocketlike contraption) works perfectly. Spotlighting a spirited, young protagonist, Pedersen’s tale deftly encourages youngsters to persist in their creative pursuits even when things get tough. The personification of negative talk as a troublemaking monster is clever and kid-friendly. Sammy’s experience emphasizes how treating yourself with kindness and compassion aids in success. Neipp’s bold, full-color cartoon illustrations offer vibrant scenes of the treehouse workshop filled with gadgets and amusing details like Sammy’s teddy-bear sidekick. Dialogue and active words like BOOMand PLOPare enlarged and integrated into the scenes. Shapes, lines, and squiggles indicate movement, emotions, and sounds.
An imaginative, quirky tale about perseverance and the importance of patience.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-9852460-0-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sky-based pyrotechnics make for a fun if somewhat confusing telling.
In this collaboration between sci-fi novelist Sanderson and Amulet creator Kibuishi, an unreliable narrator informs readers that here be no dragons.
“A boy sat in a chair.” The book opens on a bespectacled, light-skinned child in old-fashioned attire. The narration continues, “That’s it. He just sat in a chair,” while on the opposite page, the boy’s chair has unexpectedly whisked him heavenward. The narrator attempts to convince readers that just sitting in a chair is boring. As the story continues, however, the boy is attacked by an array of sky ruffians operating vessels; fight scenes and impressive explosions ensue. A dragon makes an appearance as the narrator drones on about how dull the story is. Kibuishi’s detailed cartoon images depict an enticing steampunk-esque world. Adults reading this book to kids might want to read the text first without the pictures; on a second run they can show off the images, neatly illustrating the important interplay of text and visuals in sequential art. Unfortunately, for all that the illustrations maintain the action at a fair clip, near the end the plot grows muddled as the boy gets out of his chair but then tumbles to the ground: Was he falling and then trying to stop himself? Some adult intervention may be required to clarify what precisely is happening on the page.
Sky-based pyrotechnics make for a fun if somewhat confusing telling. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781250843661
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
