A cute story about learning how to enjoy games and appreciate new friends, featuring an admirable moral for young children.
A fun, gentle children’s story about learning to enjoy games whether you win or lose.
Everyone likes to win, but Amy refuses to lose. She expects everyone to let her win every game, and other kids, her parents and teachers live in fear of her tantrums. But one day, a new babysitter decides to teach Amy how to enjoy playing games rather than just winning them. The babysitter who finally stands up to Amy isn’t mean; she’s actually kind and patient, even as the little girl yells. Amy realizes that she enjoys the process of playing a game after the babysitter, rather than simply giving in to her like everyone else does, challenges her to think and learn. This story would be great for parents to read with their children, especially those preparing for preschool or kindergarten, since learning how to lose gracefully is an important part of socialization. Also, since the babysitter is an older girl—not a parent or teacher—she’s also able to be more like a friend, which reinforces the fact that games can be a bonding experience, not just educational activities among friends. The bright, cheerful illustrations are delightfully simple, though the backgrounds are a bit dull; young readers would probably appreciate more variation in the drawings, too. Also, readers would most likely appreciate slightly more specific descriptions of what games Amy and the babysitter play together. However, neither of these issues are enough to detract from the fun book’s readability.
A cute story about learning how to enjoy games and appreciate new friends, featuring an admirable moral for young children.Pub Date: June 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0988744400
Page Count: 52
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...
A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.
Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-380-97778-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
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