Four children learn about fractions when they wish on a star and only get partial wish fulfillments. Four-year-old Petey and his two-year-old brother, Joey, make the first wishes on the star, asking for a dollar. Sally, eight, thinks they are both goofy, but the next morning Petey is a quarter richer. He wishes again, while Joey asks for a cookie. Petey receives another quarter and Joey gets half a cookie. At this point, Sally and her twin Samantha get in on the wishing. But each receives only an eighth of their wish. Putting their heads together, they determine that their ages are the key, and that if they all wish for the same thing, they can get one whole. And what a wish it is! Currey’s watercolor illustrations capture the wonder and puzzlement in the children’s faces as they ponder their wishing star. She visually presents the fractional parts, as well as the number of parts required to make a whole, and adds the fractional notation. The kids’ clever way of testing their math will have teachers applauding, as will the amazing mind-stretching follow-up page, which gives readers some thought-provoking questions to further explore the concepts presented in the book. A clever concept done well. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7665-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2007
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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