An unentertaining presentation of complex topics.
A classroom of children practice expressing preferences with their teacher and caregivers.
A bright yellow school bus drops off Jamie, who is light-skinned with reddish-brown hair, and their classmates for Family Day at a suburban school building. Jamie’s peers discuss the ways their caregivers misunderstand them. Jamie admires the unicorn shirt worn by Alicia, a blond, light-skinned child. Alicia replies, “My mom made me wear it,” and Jamie offers their green sweater to cover it up. Joey, a brown-skinned child with a tight Afro, complains, “My dad wants me to play soccer, but I want to go to art class with Jamie,” and Xavier, who has brown hair and light skin, wishes his uncle would not shame him for crying. The group is rounded out by Cynthia, who has light skin and a blue hijab, who longs to play with her food instead of focusing on manners. The children resolve their issues neatly and, with their teacher’s blessing, organize an art project to share their truths with their caregivers. Chunky black text is paired with illustrations filled with cheerful greens, calm blues, and warm browns. Though the story is well intentioned, it lacks verve; the children’s distress about gender norms and expected behavior feels less like a narrative and more like a laundry list of woes. Backmatter includes helpful notes about listening to and offering decision-making power to children whenever possible. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An unentertaining presentation of complex topics. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63198-553-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Purposeful, but saved from didacticism by the sheer exuberance of the illustrations; the accessible text introduces the idea...
Although today’s kids usually communicate through texting or email, Elliot from the United States and Kailash from India use pictures and a few simple sentences to exchange information about their lives.
Their teachers facilitate the snail mailing of pictorial letters, just as the author-illustrator did when she visited Nepal, which provided the inspiration for this book. The title, also used as a refrain throughout the book, is a popular saying in India and Nepal, heard by Kostecki-Shaw when she traveled there. Elliot and Kailash explore their similarities and differences, concluding that their lives are “Different, different but the SAME!” The engaging childlike acrylic paintings with crayon, pencil, tissue paper and other collage elements show the busy crowded American streets of Elliot’s city, the traditional buildings of Kailash’s riverside village, the taxis and buses in the States and the taxis and camel-pulled carts in India. The English alphabet is reproduced on wide-ruled notebook paper and the Hindi alphabet (unfortunately unidentified) on a small slate, and both typical American pets (dog and fish) and a whole farmyard of Indian animals appear. Both kids live unusually low-tech lives (no computers or cell phones in sight), but they each enjoy learning about their pen pal’s world.
Purposeful, but saved from didacticism by the sheer exuberance of the illustrations; the accessible text introduces the idea of traditional two-way communication and demonstrates just how small our world can be. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8946-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
Doubles down on a basic math concept with a bit of character development.
A child who insists on having MORE of everything gets MORE than she can handle.
Demanding young Moxie Jo is delighted to discover that pushing the button on a stick she finds in the yard doubles anything she points to. Unfortunately, when she points to her puppy, Max, the button gets stuck—and in no time one dog has become two, then four, then eight, then….Readers familiar with the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” or Tomie dePaola’s Strega Nona will know how this is going to go, and Masse obliges by filling up succeeding scenes with burgeoning hordes of cute yellow puppies enthusiastically making a shambles of the house. McKellar puts an arithmetical spin on the crisis—“The number of pups exponentially grew: / They each multiplied times a factor of 2!” When clumsy little brother Clark inadvertently intervenes, Moxie Jo is left wiser about her real needs (mostly). An appended section uses lemons to show how exponential doubling quickly leads to really big numbers. Stuart J. Murphy’s Double the Ducks (illustrated by Valeria Petrone, 2002) in the MathStart series explores doubling from a broader perspective and includes more backmatter to encourage further study, but this outing adds some messaging: Moxie Jo’s change of perspective may give children with sharing issues food for thought. She and her family are White; her friends are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Doubles down on a basic math concept with a bit of character development. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-101-93386-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
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