Supposing…a new generation of readers took this invitation to heart to write themselves into different stories?
New illustrations buff up a classic set of provocative proposals.
Matched to its fourth set of pictures (these drawn from a 2018 Portuguese edition), Reid’s 1960 thought experiments have lost none of their ability to jump-start flights of fancy—for better or worse. Some—“Supposing there were 12 of me…” or “Supposing I taught my dog how to read…”—are fun and relatively innocuous. Others foment real or fancied revenge on rude librarians and other grown-ups (“Supposing my Aunt Mabel came to tea and said to me how big I was getting, for the millionth time, and I just stared back and said to her: How old you’re getting...”), and others envision empowering acts like saving Dad from financial ruin (again, 1960) or helping to recapture an escaped lion. A few entries are potentially disquieting, though (“Supposing I went bald…”), and the closer, “Supposing I went blank…,” printed on a white page, is an open invitation to existential dread. Period details (mostly) and a graphic style with flattened perspectives and thin, overlaid colors lend Yoon’s illustrations an appropriately mid-20th-century look. Human figures, most of which are children, are stylized enough to make racial identities ambiguous.
Supposing…a new generation of readers took this invitation to heart to write themselves into different stories? (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-59270-376-0
Page Count: 27
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A pleasant book featuring playful storytelling and gentle lessons in character-building.
In this debut children’s novel, three mouse sisters find fun and adventure with their fellow creatures in a small Georgia town.
This story features numerous animals and two benign humans in a little town called Evergreen. The sympathetic humans are Josiah Hillendale, a white man who owns a nearby sawmill and lumber company; and his right-hand man who runs the sawmill, Joe Phillips, who’s black. Most of the action, however, centers on the Hopkinses, a mouse family residing in a cozy den on the outskirts of the sawmill. There, three sisters grow up: responsible Pouxie, timid Mouxie, and bouncy Chrissie, the youngest, who “can sniff out happiness the way most creatures can sniff out supper.” The siblings have a festive game day with their parents, help deter greedy ants from ruining Mama’s shopping trip, visit their squirrel friends’ treehouse, and “go to school”—that is, feast on leftovers from human kids’ lunches. Lessons of kindness, teamwork, generosity, and confidence-building are an organic part of the story; anxious Mouxie, for instance, learns that planning ahead can alleviate worry; the sisters and the protective Crow brothers befriend a neglected mule; and a fat sawmill cat learns something about hubris when he’s hurt while attempting to ambush Mama Hopkins. (Joe helps heal the cat’s injuries and battered pride.) The book’s quirky, conversational style offers read-aloud appeal for young children and tongue-in-cheek humor that older elementary school readers (and adults) will appreciate; Papa Hopkins, for example, indulges in a “toot” of hidden berry juice; voracious reader Joe likes J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, and “lots of things in between,” including books like Saw Tooth Sharpening. Noreikas’ graphite-and-ink–style illustrations of animals, humans, and maps are a delight, rendered with skill and comic wit. The book concludes with plot points that the next volume of the planned trilogy will likely resolve.
A pleasant book featuring playful storytelling and gentle lessons in character-building.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4808-4784-2
Page Count: 142
Publisher: ArchwayPublishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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