“Good news, people!” Junie B. has lost her first tooth and she is the first person in Room One to reach this milestone. Is Junie B. excited? Well, yes and no. First, she is excited about sharing the news, and the bloodstained spit cup, with her classmates. But, she is concerned that she will end up like Sheldon’s toothless Uncle Lou. Then, she imagines that she will look so different that no one at school will recognize her. And there is the little matter of the Tooth Fairy. See, Junie B. knows “stuff about the fairy, that’s why.” The “truth” is perfectly clear to her and seems so logical coming out of her mouth: the Tooth Fairy is really a Tooth Witch who collects teeth to EAT. Her mother challenges Junie B.’s emphatic explanation of the tiny cheek-pinching Tooth Witch flying on her toothbrush. But Junie B. has no patience for her mother’s dense thinking. “I rolled my eyes way up to the ceiling. ’Cause sometimes I have to explain everything to that woman.” Sassy and perceptive Junie B. is growing up, and Park’s first-person narrative improves as her character ages. Junie B. has been listening to adults and loves to add grown-up words and colloquialisms to her speech. The reader is treated to words like “fascinating, reaction, pleasure, occasional, festivities and ‘that’s another can of worms.” Junie B.’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world and her exasperation with the well-meaning adults in her life. A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud for the first-grade classroom. (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-80295-9
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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