A memorable first skate by an irresistible imp.
Things get a bit dicey when plucky Samantha experiments with her new roller skates in one frightening, hilarious inaugural “roll” through town.
Eager to try out her new roller skates, Samantha’s undaunted when her mother’s too busy to help her learn. Instead of putting the skates away as her mother instructs, Samantha puts them on and carefully cruises “through the kitchen, through the den, / Down the hall and back again.” Positive her mother won’t mind, Samantha slides out the door and skates down the sidewalk and up Hawthorn Hill, where “she doesn’t note the long, STEEP slope” until it’s too late and she’s speeding downhill, very much out of control. Clueless how to brake, Samantha creates havoc as she flies by Will chasing butterflies, bumps into Matt playing ball, snags Katie’s kite string, collides with an outdoor bridal party, “Slaloms through the marching band, / Overturns the ice cream stand” and soars up a skateboard ramp. The jaunty text in easy-to-remember couplets starts slowly as Samantha inches along on her new skates and accelerates into a sweeping crescendo memorializing her downward descent. Colored-pencil–and-watercolor illustrations rely on energized, quick lines to maximize Samantha’s exaggerated facial expressions and frantic body language as she careens across the page.
A memorable first skate by an irresistible imp. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-36399-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An action-packed romp.
Superheroes deal with their emotions.
What happens when the empowered have a terrible day? Becker posits that while they could go on destructive sprees and wreak havoc, the caped crusaders and men and women of steel harness their energies and direct it in constructive ways. Little readers filled with energy and emotion may learn to draw similar conclusions, but the author doesn’t hammer home the message. The author has much more fun staging scenes of chaos and action, and Kaban clearly has a ball illustrating them. Superheroes could use laser vision to burn down forests and weather powers to freeze beachgoers. They could ignore crime sprees and toss vehicles across state lines. These hypothetical violent spectacles are softened by the cartoonish stylizations and juxtaposed with pages filled with heroic, “true” efforts such as rounding up criminals and providing fun at an amusement park. The illustrations are energetic and feature multicultural heroes. The vigorous illustrations make this a read for older children, as the busyness could overwhelm very little ones. While the book’s formula recalls How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and its many sequels, the relative scarcity of superhero picture books means there’s a place on the shelf for it.
An action-packed romp. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1394-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Birdsong began her career as a teacher, and the book will find repeated use in the classroom.
A multicultural girl-power manifesto featuring a feisty young girl who faces her day as a knight on an epic quest.
The unnamed narrator puts on her “armor” (a rainbow sweater) and fills her “treasure chest” (a backpack). Venturing forth to “explore new worlds,” she drives back “dragons” (neighborhood dogs on their walk), boards the “many-headed serpent” (her school bus, with schoolmates’ heads protruding from every window), and visits “the Mountain of Knowledge” (the school library) to “solve the mysteries of the unknown.” After standing up for her beliefs—by joining a classmate sitting alone in the cafeteria—the young girl returns home to rest in the lap of an older female relative, possibly a grandparent/primary caregiver, to prepare for the next day, when she can be “fierce again.” Birdsong’s repeated refrain—“I will be fierce!”—underlines the unambiguous message of this sassy picture book, and Chanani’s bold and energetic illustrations reinforce the text’s punchy, feminist-y declarations. They depict a joyously multiracial environment, consciously tackling stereotypes with an elderly, white, female bus driver and a groovy, Asian-presenting librarian with a green streak in her hair. The fierce protagonist herself has brown skin and fluffy, dark brown hair, and her caregiver also has brown skin.
Birdsong began her career as a teacher, and the book will find repeated use in the classroom. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-29508-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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