An adventurous, offbeat take on telling time.
A girl visits creatures that live at each number of the clock in debut author/illustrator Richards’ picture book.
Desi, a girl with light-brown skin and dark-brown hair, explains that in the circular land where she lives, creatures called Tocks reside at each number of the clock face; with her dog and cat, she visits each one. First is the Phloon, a stringy, singing creature who lives on a dune at noon; she later takes a rowboat to see the octopuslike Gloor at 4 and ventures through a snowy forest to see the dangling, spiderlike Sline at 9. During her visits, Desi explains the Tocks’ traits, abilities, and personalities. Some are scary, but others are pleasant, such as the Thevin, a large, purple creature with a “toy train that / brings tea and lemon.” The trio returns to “where the Phloon stood at noon,” and at midnight, they receive good-night wishes from a giant, multicolored Zight. Young readers will enjoy the whimsical settings and the imaginative, engaging Tocks while familiarizing themselves with numbers and the hours of the clock. The brightly colored, cartoonlike illustrations include many fun details, as when Desi and her pets are seen dressed up for a posh party at the Thevin’s. Backdrops include quirky thematic elements, such as a wall decorated with the lyrics to “Hickory Dickory Dock.”
An adventurous, offbeat take on telling time.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73770-560-4
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Kintou Media Company
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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