Spirited and often exciting, if a little ragged.
When the weather gets rough, Grandma takes the helm.
The clanging of the bell buoy indicates choppy water, but that doesn't deter Grandma from her planned adventure with Little Billy. It's Labor Day, so she has the day off. (Most every other day she's running her trash-hauling/snowplow business.) She and Billy are going to relax in the lobsterboat while her son Bill (who has a wee problem with seasickness) tends to the catch. A thick fog rolls in just as it's time to head back. But Bill is weak-kneed in the stern of the lobsterboat, and Billy can't raise uncles Buster or Burt by phone. There's only one thing to do: With Little Billy as her eyes, Grandma takes the helm. It's a heart-stopping ride, swerving past the buoy and veering away from the rocks that support the lighthouse. Thanks to Grandma and Little Billy, the Labor Day lobster bake is a great success, and she rewards him with the biggest lobster he's ever seen. Clark's text is ample, and, while giving empowerment to senior citizens, the tone is consistently tongue-in-cheek. Many of Huntington's seascapes benefit by filling two wide pages. Some readers will wonder at plot holes, including the fact that savvy Grandma relies on her seasick son in the first place.
Spirited and often exciting, if a little ragged. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60893-004-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Down East
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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