Still, Ty might hit the spot for certain kids in that liminal stage.
The spinoff from the popular The Winnie Years series will offer a new, younger generation of Myracle fans the chance to enjoy the ups and downs of the Perry family.
Seven-year-old Ty was the baby of the family until his little sister came along, and getting used to life with a demanding new baby around hasn’t been easy. Desperate for his mother’s attention and struggling with feelings of jealousy he’s too young to understand, Ty begins to act out. Though the action doesn’t really pick up until Ty makes it to the aquarium about a third of the way through the book, his escapades will entertain and endear Ty to readers. With its easily accessible language and engaging black-and-white illustrations, this book makes for a wonderful read-aloud, particularly for young children who are likely to be experiencing the same growing pains in their own homes. Early chapter-book readers, however, might be turned off by the fact that Ty often feels more like a 4- or 5-year-old than a “big guy” second-grader. Some might secretly relate to what Ty is going through (like rediscovering the comfort of a pacifier), but it’s hard to imagine that most children capable of reading a book like this on their own wouldn’t seek out a more mature protagonist.
Still, Ty might hit the spot for certain kids in that liminal stage. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: May 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-525-42264-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some...
With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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