A must for mermaid fans, sweet or sassy, and a great bedtime read.
This little mermaid is having none of that sweet stuff.
In this tale of metafiction, a scowling, green-haired, light-skinned mermaid takes umbrage at the titular bedtime guide. As she points out, “Sleep is for guppies.” The book-within-a-book begins with a good little mermaid readying herself for bed. The green-haired mermaid looks perturbed: “I’m not a good little mermaid. I am a predator.” And when the book notes that the good little mermaid brushes her teeth before bed, our protagonist is annoyed. “Who cares if my teeth are clean when they can tear through scales and crunch bones?” But she reconsiders so her teeth will “gleam like razor-sharp blades.” The wholesome instruction continues, but our mermaid continues to insist she’s a nightmare of the deep…until the yawns begin. The book-within-a-book ends with “sweet dreams, little mermaid,” to which the protagonist cheekily replies, “Sweet nightmares.” Sumner’s tale will have bedtime-reluctant guppies giggling. The pages of the saccharine-sweet bedtime guide are overlaid onto illustrations of the protagonist and her pufferfish and octopus friends. The artwork also shows that our hero’s not quite as naughty as she presents herself; when the good little mermaid gathers up a favorite toy, our protagonist imagines a giant goblin shark…but as she drifts off, we see her snuggled up with a downright adorable shark stuffie. Gregory’s dynamic, digitally created illustrations have a watercolor look and perfectly convey the humor in the text.
A must for mermaid fans, sweet or sassy, and a great bedtime read. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780735267893
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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