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OLIVER'S TANTRUMS

Name: OLIVER'S TANTRUMS
Author: Boriana Todorov
ISBN: 978-1-897476-67-3

by Boriana Todorov ; illustrated by Vladimir Todorov ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 27, 2013

Definitely a book aimed at high-energy boys.

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Photorealistic, vibrantly colored, sometimes-disturbing images tell an amped-up story of sibling jealousy.

Like Max in Where the Wild Things Are, neglected big brother Oliver seeks revenge on his family through an imaginative encounter; he takes as his vehicle three animated fuzzy balls, quaintly named Basil, Cedric and Rasmus, he finds in a box in the attic. Each Tantrum, when thrown hard at his long-suffering mother, transforms itself into a truly scary monster and inflicts near-biblical punishments of flood, food and toys gone mad. Fortunately Mom is tough and can stand up to all this bad treatment. She confronts Oliver’s demons wearing various uniforms—hazmat suit, firefighting gear, full armor. Finally she lowers her sword, opens her visor and explains to him that she loves him and didn’t mean to ignore him. The hyperactive Oliver is somewhat mollified by this, and together, mother and child conquer the dreadful Tantrums by putting the now-harmless balls back in their box. In a hint of things to come, however, little sister Polly is seen discovering the Tantrums for herself. Illustrator Vladimir Todorov’s background in animated movies is clearly evident in the high quality of the airbrushed photographic artwork, which almost seems to pop off the pages. In one particularly memorable image, a monster made of spaghetti leers at Mom with olive eyes and a particularly nasty-looking pepperoni tongue.

Definitely a book aimed at high-energy boys. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: April 27, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-897476-67-3

Page Count: 34

Publisher: Simply Read Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)