A fun read for those who enjoy dramatic, spirited children and a welcome presence of Arab culture on the page.
Noura loves to eat watermelon all day, every day, but one night she discovers that there is such a thing as too much watermelon.
When Noura, a young Arab girl, sits down for lunch with her parents, Mama puts a plate of molokhiya with chicken and rice in front of her, but she turns up her nose. “I don’t like molokhiya. I don’t like chicken. I only want watermelon,” she says. When Baba insists, Noura shouts for watermelon. This scene is left hanging, but that evening Noura sneaks into the kitchen and finds a big watermelon. Wanting it all for herself, she hides it under her bed and falls asleep thinking of it. Noura dreams that the watermelon grows to be enormous, and she goes inside it and eats watermelon until her tummy hurts. When she screams in pain in her dream, her mother wakes her, and she feels ashamed for hiding the watermelon for herself. The next morning, Noura eats all of her breakfast—egg, zaatar with olive oil, and milk—without complaint. The wildly expressive illustrations, drawn with pencil and painted with strokes of color, highlight the gaping abyss of Noura’s mouth as she devours, shouts, and cries. A cautionary tale with a swift conclusion, this is an uncommon type of picture book in the mainstream American market.
A fun read for those who enjoy dramatic, spirited children and a welcome presence of Arab culture on the page. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-2-9247862-2-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CrackBoom! Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
An accessible entrance into the world of social-emotional skills.
What do you do when the world turns upside down?
Freckled redhead Tilda is a happy only child with a rollicking personality. With lots of books and toys and a multiracial group of friends, life is perfect as far as she’s concerned…until her world undergoes a troubling change (a subtle hint in the illustrations suggests that Tilda’s parents have divorced). Suddenly, nothing feels right, everything seems hard, and she doesn’t want to play with her friends. To reflect this emotional disorientation, the artwork shows Tilda in spatially distorted settings, complete with upside-down objects. It’s not until she sees an upturned ladybug struggle persistently before getting back on its feet (despite Tilda’s desire to help, the ladybug needs to help itself) that Tilda gains the courage to start taking baby steps in order to cope with her new reality. There are still challenges, and she needs to persevere, but eventually, she regains her zest for life and reconnects with her friends. Despite this, the ending avoids an easy happily-ever-after, which feels just right for the subject matter. Though a trifle didactic, the story sends an important message about the roles of self-efficacy and persistence when it comes to overcoming challenges and building resilience. Percival’s digital illustrations use transitions from grayscale to color to create symbolic meaning and have psychological depth, deftly capturing a child’s experience of trauma.
An accessible entrance into the world of social-emotional skills. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0822-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
A silly snack guaranteed to satisfy the funny bone; kids will eat it up and ask for more.
In this droll tale, ostensibly straightforward instructions are a recipe for absurdity.
To obtain the two slices of bread that a jelly sandwich calls for, a brown-skinned youngster named Frankie instructs readers to head to the store. But NOT to the bakery aisle! Instead, buy “one orange [traffic] cone, scuba flippers, and a yellow inner tube.” Using those items to fashion a duck disguise, you’ll score the bread from a brown-skinned elder feeding wildfowl in the park. And if the ducks see through your pretense, you might have to practice your “quack-cent.” Similar maneuvers are required to open the jelly jar: You’ll need peanuts, a playground with a “whirly-go-round,” and an elephant with a strong trunk grip. (But if the jar is carelessly opened upside down, you’ll get a “jellyphant.”) To spread the jelly, you must first scrub a dog in your bathtub. (Dip the clean tail in the jelly, then pet and praise the dog until it happily wags its tail over the bread slices.) Putting the slices together requires a knightly tournament, but cutting the sandwich, “the least complicated step of all,” involves training a hamster to ride a unicycle. The final pages propose an alternative (but just as outrageous) method and invite readers to think up their own ridiculous techniques. Burach’s scenarios are inventive and hilarious, while his exaggerated cartoon illustrations reinforce the delicious jokiness each step of the way.
A silly snack guaranteed to satisfy the funny bone; kids will eat it up and ask for more. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9781338877090
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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