A kraken good time.
An unusual pet wins over a crowd.
There’s a contest at the fair, and different children are bringing their pets in hopes of winning. The bespectacled White judge is excited about the “pretty pig” and “fine hen”—and then comes across a brown-skinned child in a yellow slicker, cheerfully holding onto a large green tentacle. “It is a… / KRAKEN!” the judge shrieks in horror as the kraken, an adorable, massive-headed green sea monster, looks abashed, enormous, emotive eyes communicating volumes. All the other children are equally afraid, so the kraken slinks off to sulk in a tiny pond. This early-reader graphic novel is well paced, going a bit into the backstory of the kraken and the child with energetic, brightly colored panels, short sentences, and simple vocabulary. The ultimate triumph—involving the kraken playing around with his own ink and the sudden regurgitation of pirates—is funny and well earned, mixing both familiar children’s insecurities with off-the-wall humor and twists. The illustrations of the kraken pretending to be a spaceship or Groucho Marx are especially delightful, though the few jokes rhyming with “kraken” are a bit eye roll–y. The kraken is appealing and charming, the child is brazen and recognizable, and the overall goofiness mixed with sincerity will win over many a reluctant reader.
A kraken good time. (Graphic early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-5017-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text.
A unicorn learns a friendship lesson in this chapter-book series opener.
Unicorn Bo has friends but longs for a “bestie.” Luckily, a new unicorn pops into existence (literally: Unicorns appear on especially starry nights) and joins Bo at the Sparklegrove School for Unicorns, where they study things like unicorn magic. Each unicorn has a special power; Bo’s is granting wishes. Not knowing what his own might be distresses new unicorn Sunny. When the week’s assignment is to earn a patch by using their unicorn powers to help someone, Bo hopes Sunny will wish to know Bo's power (enabling both unicorns to complete the task, and besides, Bo enjoys Sunny’s company and wants to help him). But when the words come out wrong, Sunny thinks Bo was feigning friendship to get to grant a wish and earn a patch, setting up a fairly sophisticated conflict. Bo makes things up to Sunny, and then—with the unicorns friends again and no longer trying to force their powers—arising circumstances enable them to earn their patches. The cheerful illustrations feature a sherbet palette, using patterns for texture; on busy pages with background colors similar to the characters’ color schemes, this combines with the absence of outlines to make discerning some individual characters a challenge. The format, familiar to readers of Elliott’s Owl Diaries series, uses large print and speech bubbles to keep pages to a manageable amount of text.
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-32332-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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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