Despite obvious curricular connections, this one’s a miss.
Books about the USDA’s nutrition standards regarding healthy eating are universally bland. This is no exception.
When Jack (yes, that one) climbs the beanstalk to the giant’s land, instead of threatening his life, Waldorf invites Jack to have a healthy meal with him. Double-page spreads introduce the food groups—vegetable, fruit, grain, protein and dairy; huge (to Jack) labeled examples of the foods fill the pages. Zofia, Waldorf’s wife, arrives in time to share the meal with them. Only in these final few pages is the new MyPlate program introduced: “So it’s healthy to fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables?” “Right! The other half has grains and protein foods.” “Help yourself to a serving of dairy too!” Their meal ends with some suggestions for exercise (though the USDA MyPlate graphic takes away the visual of a figure climbing the food pyramid). The MyPlate image appears in the backmatter, along with a few more tips for healthy eating, a page of foods that have “empty calories” and a few exercise ideas. Leedy combines humor with (mostly) easily identifiable foods, making this a book that kids can participate in reading. But there is a strange mix of cartoon and real—Zofia’s plate contains a cartoon fruit salad and cooked crab alongside collaged-in salad and rice, and a piece of corn bread that is an odd mixture of both. The need to confine intake to one MyPlate per meal goes unsaid.
Despite obvious curricular connections, this one’s a miss. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2602-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A real treasure of a book for any child who has struggled to learn a skill.
A young Black boy struggles with writing—until a special guest visits his class.
Abdul loves to tell stories about the people in his neighborhood, and his friends at school love hearing them. But whenever he tries to write down his stories in a notebook, spelling rules confuse him, and his “scribbly, scratchy, scrawly letters” never stay on the lines. Abdul decides that his stories are not for books. One day, a visitor comes to Abdul’s class; Mr. Muhammad—a Black man with a flattop haircut like Abdul’s and whose sneakers, like Abdul’s, have “not a single crease or scuff”—is a writer who urges the students to “write new stories with new superheroes.” Abdul feels motivated to give writing another shot, but again he ends up with endless erasure marks and smudges. Mr. Muhammad shows Abdul his own messy notebook, and Abdul, who is left-handed, decides to try writing without erasing. He makes a mess but searches through the clutter for sentences he loves. He rewrites and rewrites and works on his mistakes until he forms a story he likes, proudly claiming the title of writer. Bright, full-color, textured digital illustrations depict a racially diverse, joyful community. This story offers an honest portrayal of learning differences and demonstrates the importance of role models who reflect kids’ own backgrounds. It is a lovely addition to the shelf of meaningful children’s books portraying Black Muslim Americans in everyday situations. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A real treasure of a book for any child who has struggled to learn a skill. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6298-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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