"Readers may wish their own schools looked more like this one, maybe minus the swimming instructor and the mashed-potato machine…. (Picture book. 5-8)"
Henry, the dapper lad in the black suit with the unruly hair, makes another appearance in Cali and Chaud's (A Funny Thing Happened at the Museum…, 2017, etc.) latest collaboration, this time showing a new student the highlights of their titular school.
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"Drolly creative but lacking frisson. (Picture book. 3-5)"
Little Pea—a light-skinned human being who never gets taller than half the length of a standard pencil—moves from infancy, through school, and into an ideal career for his talent and his size.
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"While some readers may eagerly connect these sights and sensibilities with the Night at the Museum film franchise, this attempt at a rollicking shaggy dog tale will probably occupy urbane, art-loving adults longer than it will their kids. (Picture book. 5-8)"
A boy and his dog encounter dinosaurs and Duchamp on a class trip to the museum.
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"While Abigail's internal process feels believable, there is no condemnation of the bullying, and the resolution with the other children feels forced. (Picture book. 6-8)"
"Fun for a first read but unlikely to have children calling for another. (Picture book. 6-8)"
An answer to the classic first-day-of-school question is unspooled in tall-tale fashion by the white boy with the black unruly hair in the too-small suit first met in I Didn't Do My Homework Because… (2014).
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"A well-traveled premise, but like all of its ilk, a fertile source of inspiration for similarly dilatory students. (Picture book. 6-9)"
In the grand tradition of John Burningham's John Patrick Norman McHennessy, the Boy Who Was Always Late (1987), a tardy lad spins exciting if unlikely excuses to a skeptical teacher.Read full book review >
"Ultimately, 'list' books wear thin, and this is no exception. It will likely be passed around, but repeated readings are not particularly rewarding. (Picture book. 5-9)"
"Though too metaphorical for the very young, middle-grade readers may well tuck away a small piece of this book to save for the future. (Picture book. 8-12)"
War demands an enemy: Two khaki-clad soldiers peer out of holes, torn through the page as if by bullets.
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"The colors are gorgeous and, appropriately, are reminiscent of a Wayne Thiebaud cupcake—chocolate, of course. (Picture book. 2-5)"
Let us stuff our caloric worries away and now praise, in read-aloud voice, chocolate—that giver of happiness and succor and stomachaches.
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Weary of never seeing his working mother after school, a lad imagines building a robotic parent who would make all his favorite foods, do his homework, never tell him to brush and would take care of the odd bully or obnoxious neighbor to boot.
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"Though framed as a tale for emergent readers, this actually has more to say to parents with selective memory who might be disinclined to give their children's preferences sufficient weight. (Picture book. 6-8)"
Thanks to some grandfatherly intervention, young Marcolino avoids the hated piano to practice a more agreeable instrument in this pointed import.
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