Themes of creativity and inclusion come through strongly in this adventure despite the shifting rhyme scheme.
A boy with cerebral palsy imagines his early childhood classroom as a circus in this sequel.
In narration that sometimes utilizes rhyming stanzas, a boy named Ben, a triplet who uses a wheelchair, describes the fun of going to preschool: “There is SOOO much happening...that sometimes it’s like a CIRCUS.” He envisions his teacher as a ringmaster and a friend and himself as clowns. He transforms into a tiger tamer and a juggler, and his friends take turns clowning and riding elephants. When Ben’s imagination brings him back to his classroom, his teacher reads a picture book about circuses. Ben’s creativity is the focus of Gerlach’s (Ben’s Adventures: Day at the Beach, 2018) story, and many of the rhyming couplets flow smoothly for reading aloud. Yet others have interjected sentences or descriptions with no rhymes. Ben’s wheelchair is obvious in the classroom illustrations, providing a window into a different lifestyle, but it does not appear in the circus scenes, which may confuse young readers. Debut illustrator Hider skillfully replicates the style of the first installment of this picture-book series in her cartoon images of a diverse cast. The author’s choice of making Ben’s next escapade feature war play (which is teased at the end of the story) may be off-putting to some parents.
Themes of creativity and inclusion come through strongly in this adventure despite the shifting rhyme scheme.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73270-342-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CharleyHouse Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2019
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
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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