Pair this quiet charmer with Eileen Spinelli’s slightly more challenging, free verse Where I Live, illustrated by Matt...
Back for a third outing, grade-schooler Daisy, a serious collector of words, discovers the joy of poetry.
Daisy is thrilled to be invited by a neighbor to a poetry party. Not yet a poet herself, she brings along her lists of favorite words. The other poets—all adults—warmly welcome her and help her to see that her word lists are already poetic. With that encouragement, she begins writing her own poems in a few different forms. Daisy is also concerned about what kind of project she can put together for an end-of-school-year showcase. As she grows more comfortable with poetry, she realizes she can create the perfect display, although her project—a “word cafe” where she shares her favorites along with some poetry—seems a trifle elaborate for her age. Although Daisy encounters very little strife and few challenges, her enthusiasm and Feder’s gentle storytelling provide a pleasant combination. Mitchell’s black-and-white illustrations, one or two to each brief chapter, feature round-eyed people with circular cheek highlights, simple yet appealingly cheerful. Pages are uncluttered, with largish font generously leaded, and she utilizes a manageable vocabulary for those recently transitioned to chapter books.
Pair this quiet charmer with Eileen Spinelli’s slightly more challenging, free verse Where I Live, illustrated by Matt Phelan (2007), for an even broader exploration of poetry . (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55453-908-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent.
Published in magazines, never seen since / Now resurrected for pleasure intense / Versified episodes numbering four / Featuring Marco, and Horton and more!
All of the entries in this follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories (2011) involve a certain amount of sharp dealing. Horton carries a Kwuggerbug through crocodile-infested waters and up a steep mountain because “a deal is a deal”—and then is cheated out of his promised share of delicious Beezlenuts. Officer Pat heads off escalating, imagined disasters on Mulberry Street by clubbing a pesky gnat. Marco (originally met on that same Mulberry Street) concocts a baroque excuse for being late to school. In the closer, a smooth-talking Grinch (not the green sort) sells a gullible Hoobub a piece of string. In a lively introduction, uber-fan Charles D. Cohen (The Seuss, The Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss, 2002) provides publishing histories, places characters and settings in Seussian context, and offers insights into, for instance, the origin of “Grinch.” Along with predictably engaging wordplay—“He climbed. He grew dizzy. His ankles grew numb. / But he climbed and he climbed and he clum and he clum”—each tale features bright, crisply reproduced renditions of its original illustrations. Except for “The Hoobub and the Grinch,” which has been jammed into a single spread, the verses and pictures are laid out in spacious, visually appealing ways.
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-38298-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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