IF YOU'RE A ROBOT AND YOU KNOW IT

Name: IF YOU'RE A ROBOT AND YOU KNOW IT
Author: Musical Robot
ISBN: 978-0-545-81980-0

by Musical Robot ; illustrated by David A. Carter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2015

After the hundredth (or thousandth) repetition of the original, this may come as a welcome variation—to the grown-ups, at...

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The ever versatile activity song gets a techno-twist with customized lyrics and pop-up robots lined up to demonstrate each verse.

“If you’re a robot and you know it / then your circuit board will show it….” Following the familiar “clap your hands” and “stomp your feet,” the directions take a quick left turn that begins with “jump and beep” and culminates with a spectacular “shoot laser beams out of your eyes” before the closing “Hooray!” Animated by pull-tabs and constructed in the cartoon illustrations from scrap metal and diverse elements including, for one, a tea-kettle head, Carter’s hand-clapping, limb-stretching, (card stock) laser-beam–shooting clanks have an appropriately silly look. A free download of the song, first issued on a 2013 CD, makes a sprightly, if likely to be superfluous, extra.

After the hundredth (or thousandth) repetition of the original, this may come as a welcome variation—to the grown-ups, at least. (Pop-up picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-545-81980-0

Page Count: 14

Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, STRONG LITTLE ME!

by Hannah Carmona Dias ; illustrated by Dolly Georgieva-Gode ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2018

Mixed-race children certainly deserve mirror books, but they also deserve excellent text and illustrations. This one misses...

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This tan-skinned, freckle-faced narrator extols her own virtues while describing the challenges of being of mixed race.

Protagonist Lilly appears on the cover, and her voluminous curly, twirly hair fills the image. Throughout the rhyming narrative, accompanied by cartoonish digital illustrations, Lilly brags on her dark skin (that isn’t very), “frizzy, wild” hair, eyebrows, intellect, and more. Her five friends present black, Asian, white (one blonde, one redheaded), and brown (this last uses a wheelchair). This array smacks of tokenism, since the protagonist focuses only on self-promotion, leaving no room for the friends’ character development. Lilly describes how hurtful racial microaggressions can be by recalling questions others ask her like “What are you?” She remains resilient and says that even though her skin and hair make her different, “the way that I look / Is not all I’m about.” But she spends so much time talking about her appearance that this may be hard for readers to believe. The rhyming verse that conveys her self-celebration is often clumsy and forced, resulting in a poorly written, plotless story for which the internal illustrations fall far short of the quality of the cover image.

Mixed-race children certainly deserve mirror books, but they also deserve excellent text and illustrations. This one misses the mark on both counts. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-63233-170-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Eifrig

Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
DAZZLING TRAVIS
by Hannah Carmona Dias ; illustrated by Brenda Figueroa

THE HIPS ON THE DRAG QUEEN GO SWISH, SWISH, SWISH

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THE HIPS ON THE DRAG QUEEN GO SWISH, SWISH, SWISH

by Lil Miss Hot Mess ; illustrated by Olga de Dios ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2020

Fun, fun, fun all through the town!

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This book’s gonna werk, werk, werk all through Pride Month and beyond.

Drag persona Lil Miss Hot Mess rewrites “The Wheels on the Bus” to create a fun, movement-filled, family-friendly celebration of drag. The text opens with the titular verse to establish the familiar song’s formulaic pattern: “The hips on the drag queen go SWISH, SWISH, SWISH… / ALL THROUGH THE TOWN!” Along the way, more and more drag queens join in the celebration. The unnamed queens proudly display a range of skin tones, sizes, and body modifications to create a diverse cast of realistic characters that could easily be spotted at a Pride event or on RuPaul’s Drag Race. The palette of both costumes and backgrounds is appropriately psychedelic, and there are plenty of jewels going “BLING, BLING, BLING.” Don’t tell the queens, but the flow is the book’s real star, because it encourages natural kinetic participation that will have groups of young readers giggling and miming along with the story. Libraries and bookshops hosting drag-queen storytimes will find this a popular choice, and those celebrating LGBTQ+ heritage will also find this a useful book for the pre-K crowd. Curious children unfamiliar with a drag queen may require a brief explanation, but the spectacle stands up just fine on its own platforms.

Fun, fun, fun all through the town! (Picture book. 4-6)