A gentle, comic treat with a subtle lesson about building character.
In this charming picture book, a timid mouse wins the day by using determination and hard work to overcome his fear of performing in public.
The story begins with a poster announcing that the animals at the Pennydale Zoo will soon host a talent show. As a mouse with song-and-dance dreams, little Juniper Mouse yearns to join the other contestants in the spotlight, but he feels too shy to follow through: “He thought of how nervous, / He’d look stood on the stage, / The big cats all howling, / And rattling their cage.” Juniper’s encouraging mom suggests that he practice hard in order to do his best, and the little mouse takes her advice to heart. When the big day arrives, Juniper is the last act on the bill. The author has fun with a comic roster of talent-show participants, and his young readers will, too; they include a judge (an African lion named Big-Paws McGraw), an emcee (Gwen the Rockhopper Penguin), and various contestants whose ambitious acts go awry: a rabbit gets stuck in Gerry the magician giraffe’s cape; one member of a “hump-tastic, desert-walking, sideways-chewing group” of singing camels hits a sour note; and disaster strikes during a pachyderm-turtle duo’s balancing and juggling act. Finally, it’s Juniper’s turn to confound assumptions (“ ‘Ha, ha,’ sneered the Lizard, / ‘So what can a mouse do?’ ”) with his tap-dancing and “rhyme-rapping.” Children’s-book author Sadler (Normal Nina and Her Magic Box, 2014) offers another lighthearted picture-and-poetry book with a serious message. Its quatrains have the same rhythmic bounce and simplicity as his first, but they have more clarity of purpose. His previous book had a similarly gentle appeal, but it lost its way with a fuzzy message that seemed to equate “normal” with “good.” Here, however, the lesson, about the value of working toward a desired goal, has a clear subtext of healthy empowerment. The author also nicely realizes the humorous mishaps and ebullient finale with colorful, fine-lined illustrations.
A gentle, comic treat with a subtle lesson about building character.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1500262174
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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