A kids’-book celebration of living-room adventures featuring uncomplicated illustrations.
Three young boys reach the peak of an imaginary adventure in Timmerman’s debut picture book.
As the book opens, Jack and his friends, Ethan and Owen, are scaling Mount Everest. While gathering their gear, they hear that a big storm is on the way and they’ll only have one chance to reach the summit. While crossing a crevasse with a wobbly ladder, Jack stumbles, but a sherpa rescues him in the nick of time. The rest of the climb is a success, and the boys cheer when they reach the summit—but they soon realize that their noise may have caused an avalanche. Luckily, the whole adventure is shown to be a celebration of make-believe: the three boys have actually conquered living-room furniture in homemade climbing gear. Timmerman describes real mountain climbing equipment while giving the characters a healthy sense of adventure and courage. Nehl’s illustrations and Timmerman’s text show the boys to be young but of indeterminate age; only the back cover text notes that Jack’s age is 4 years old. The images are understated, with simple backgrounds and muted colors, and they give the work a chapter-book feel, despite its length. The final page, on which the boys are sad that Jack’s mother may break up their game, is a letdown after the triumphant game of pretend. However, despite their expressions, the boys are clearly not the type to be kept down for long. Children will identify with the characters’ imaginative play and possibly save some of their ideas for later. Lap readers and newly independent readers will find some challenging vocabulary here (“summit,” “Sherpa,” “crevasse”), and the book would have been better served by having a glossary. However, the introduction of mountain-climbing concepts, especially in the safe context of piles of pillows and a sheet tent, may encourage young readers to check out books about real-life Mount Everest expeditions.
A kids’-book celebration of living-room adventures featuring uncomplicated illustrations.Pub Date: July 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500122836
Page Count: 30
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 19, 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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