A solid story with illustrations that don’t quite measure up.
Daniela, girl captain of a fearsome pirate ship, contends with a band of pirate girls whose reputation is outstripping hers.
Daniela’s ship, the Black Croc, receives word that some merfolk are trapped in a cave. They heroically travel and dive to free them…only to discover that the Fearless Piranhas beat them to it. Daniela sets out to find this all-girl band of pirates to see if they’re as great as the merfolk say they are. On their quest, they discover more people and animals who’ve been saved by the Fearless Piranhas—who have by now obtained the lost treasure for which the Black Croc had been searching. Their pursuit carries them into a storm, where they find the Fearless Piranhas’ ship has been overturned. Despite their differences, Daniela and her crew work with a whale to rescue their rivals. The two bands reconcile and go on to have amazing adventures together, including sharing the treasure. Pirate-loving children are bound to enjoy this fun story of jealousy and overcoming differences. The brightly colored illustrations are busy assemblages of goofy faces, with little space for the eye to rest on most spreads. The multiracial cast features a white Daniela and a black captain of the Piranhas, both with orange hair, though some of the depictions of black and Asian characters sway toward the stereotypical. The book is a Spanish import, and the Spanish-language original publishes simultaneously in the U.S.
A solid story with illustrations that don’t quite measure up. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-84-17673-27-7
Page Count: 44
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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