A good conversation starter about looking beyond ego.
Bigfoot’s fur is amazing…but does everyone really admire it as much as Bigfoot does?
On the way to school one day, Bigfoot’s friends—a witch, an elf, and a vampire by appearances—all compliment Bigfoot’s silky, brown fur. Bigfoot blushes but thinks, “I love my fur! It’s so fluffy! It’s so soft!” Bigfoot talks about nothing but fur (even when a dragon classmate tries to talk about a new book). Bigfoot starts advising everyone on hair/fur care (even though the ET has no hair and the gorgon’s topped with a head of snakes). When Bigfoot’s mother suggests a furcut, Bigfoot declines: “Fur this beautiful should never be cut.” Allowed to grow uncontrollably, it begins to cause problems. It inundates the class’s show and tell. It trips up a unicorn classmate and gets stuck in everyone’s recorders in music class. Bigfoot finally notices that the others aren’t focusing on the hair (when it isn’t interfering with them), and at last Bigfoot understands. After a massive furcut, Bigfoot begins to take an interest in classmates’ concerns. Bigfoot learns there’s more to life than fur, and everyone is better off. Miller’s cute, colorful button-eyed creatures inhabit a mix of graphic panels and full-bleed illustrations that do the heavy lifting for Bigfoot’s tale, with text relegated to occasional dialogue balloons and some simple declarative sentences. The attitudes and problems of Bigfoot’s classmates are only presented visually, giving young readers the opportunity to read expressions and make inferences from them. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A good conversation starter about looking beyond ego. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-7895-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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