A worthy but not uncommon premise, developed elsewhere with better writing and art.
A young collector repurposes found junk, bringing his scoffing peers along on a flight of fancy.
To Zane a hubcap is a “flying saucer’s crest,” a brown bag with armholes becomes a warrior’s shield and other litter is similarly transformed. Initially dismissive, the other kids in his urban neighborhood are soon marching along behind brandishing their own finds—and gathering at last aboard a packing-crate “ship” constructed in an empty lot. Though thematically kin to Antoinette Portis’ Not a Box (2006) and other celebrations of imaginative play, it’s a poor relation. Bennett’s rhyming cadences are occasionally forced: “One day I went rambling / and found a long lasso.” Moreover, the multicultural cast of children in Murphy’s seedy settings have oddly misshapen facial features, and one discovery (“Hey! What’s that?”) is rendered as a visual jumble that will leave readers confused about what they’re supposed to be seeing.
A worthy but not uncommon premise, developed elsewhere with better writing and art. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-936474-06-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Bright Sky Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.
The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work.
A young spinach hater becomes a spinach lover after she has to grow her own in a class garden.
Unable to trade away the seed packet she gets from her teacher for tomatoes, cukes or anything else more palatable, Sylvia reluctantly plants and nurtures a pot of the despised veggie then transplants it outside in early spring. By the end of school, only the plot’s lettuce, radishes and spinach are actually ready to eat (talk about a badly designed class project!)—and Sylvia, once she nerves herself to take a nibble, discovers that the stuff is “not bad.” She brings home an armful and enjoys it from then on in every dish: “And that was the summer Sylvia Spivens said yes to spinach.” Raff uses unlined brushwork to give her simple cartoon illustrations a pleasantly freehand, airy look, and though Pryor skips over the (literally, for spinach) gritty details in both the story and an afterword, she does cover gardening basics in a simple and encouraging way.
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9836615-1-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Readers to Eaters
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
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