Fun, with depth
Young inventor Izzy attempts to help an injured crow fly again.
Izzy Gizmo loves making things. She loves creating, mending, and improving so much so that she carries “her tool bag wherever she [goes].” Sadly, however, her inventions “don’t always work.” In rhyming verse, readers are told exactly how Izzy’s inventions misbehave, while the colorful illustrations highlight their complexity. Frustrated Izzy is encouraged by her caregiver grandfather, who, though the victim of her misbehaving innovations, dispenses this advice: “Sometimes you need / to try again and again if you want to succeed.” When Izzy discovers an injured crow that the vet says won’t fly again, she engages it in fun, earthbound activities, but the crow’s heart is still in the skies. Izzy decides to use her talents to make the crow new wings: she researches, makes lists, and gathers parts, but like her previous inventions, none of the wings work properly. At many points along the way, curly-haired, brown-skinned Izzy wants to quit—and says so—but continues to persevere and in the end succeeds. Though readers may wonder if the rhymes were necessary, this story of a girl engineer is sorely needed and has potential to develop and nourish readers’ interest in STEAM subjects. Additionally, themes of creativity and tenacity, together with the portrayal of a girl who’s allowed to show anger and frustration, make this a worthwhile read.
Fun, with depth . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68263-021-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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