A cute but wordy offering that will have children peeking under tables in search of the titular character.
Doña Esmeralda will slurp up anything with her magic straw, but what happens when she finally bites off more than she can chew?
Doña Esmeralda is a hero to children everywhere. All they have to do is say, “I don’t want to eat this,” and she sneaks along and sucks up their yucky giniling or zucchini bread. But someone, even a tiny, ancient, magical someone, can only eat gross leftovers for so long before getting curious about what else is out there that children DO want to eat. Once she starts, she cannot stop herself! Chicken nuggets, hamburgers, pizza, samosas, bulgogi, and more—all get sucked up through her straw, until the inevitable happens and…BOOM! Doña Esmeralda explodes, and without her, the children must learn to eat the food they don’t like themselves, but they still keep an eye out for her, just in case. Though the text is lengthy and at times clunky, the premise of the story is fun, and the illustrations are bright and vibrant, full of silly antics. Doña Esmeralda has light skin and a black bouffant; the children depicted throughout are diverse. In an author’s note, de la Cruz explains that she drew inspiration from the Filipino legend of the aswang and sought to honor the Filipino foods she ate growing up; included is her mother’s recipe for lumpia. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A cute but wordy offering that will have children peeking under tables in search of the titular character. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75161-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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