A fun, laugh-out-loud journey through a child’s imagination with wacky illustrations—a delight for all.
A young girl takes her family along for a wild ride through her imagination as she dreams up increasingly weird—and hilarious—scenarios.
An unnamed little girl sits at the dinner table with her family. As her mother urges her to eat, the girl instead asks questions that always begin with the prompt, “Would it be weird….” For example, she wonders, “Would it be weird if my mouth was a piano? And then, every time I brushed my teeth, everyone would cheer and clap!” In response to these increasingly elaborate questions, the girl’s mother is always ready with a response: “Yes, that wouldbe weird…. Wewould be so proud of you! We would even find a dentist who fixes pianos.” After the little girl, who has medium brown skin and bright green eyes, exhausts her mother with her questions (that involve everything from sharks in an epic dance battle to Egyptian mummies in pursuit to alien makeovers), she gets ready for bed and realizes she has one more question…but this time, for her dad. Epelbaum’s illustrations include bold lines and bright colors, giving the book an almost comic book–style flair that’s endearingly absurd (like the family dog using its eye lasers to blast a giant anthropomorphic slice of pizza). Both the text and illustrations infuse the story with a joyous feeling. It’s ultimately an exuberant ode to childhood, creativity, and family, and a pleasure to read for kids and adults.
A fun, laugh-out-loud journey through a child’s imagination with wacky illustrations—a delight for all.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781961166035
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Nextcore
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
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