The questionable co-optation of cherished characters from classic children’s literature continues, exemplified by this third entry by Suen and Eitzen in the Peter’s Neighborhood series (Willie’s Birthday, 2001, etc.). Peter, hero of the beloved Ezra Jack Keats classics The Snowy Day and Peter’s Chair, is in third or fourth grade now, and he has a couple of mild problems. He wants his loose tooth to stay connected until school-picture day is over, and he wants a new basketball, but hasn’t saved enough money to cover the cost. Peter and his friends from various Keats stories (Amy, Archie, and Lily) play a game of pick-up basketball on the playground with four other kids, and Peter’s tooth falls out after he trips and falls. He cheerfully decides to “say cheese” for his school picture, knowing that he’ll have enough money to buy a basketball after a visit from the tooth fairy. The sturdy but unexceptionable storyline lacks the flair of original work by Keats, and Eitzen’s imitative illustrations are only a pale echo of Keatsian genius. Still, the third title in a series implies a certain level of success, so the series may well continue as Peter and his friends grow up. (Imagine the YA titles to follow: A Letter to Peter from Amy, Dreams in Apt. 3, and after Peter and Amy settle down together to raise a family, Peter’s Rocking Chair.) (Easy reader. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-670-03536-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2002
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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One more myth dispelled for all the students who believe that their teachers live in their classrooms. During the last week of school, Mrs. Hartwell and her students reflect on the things they will miss, while also looking forward to the fun that summer will bring. The kids want to cheer up their teacher, whom they imagine will be crying over lesson plans and missing them all summer long. But what gift will cheer her up? Numerous ideas are rejected, until Eddie comes up with the perfect plan. They all cooperate to create a rhyming ode to the school year and their teacher. Love’s renderings of the children are realistic, portraying the diversity of modern-day classrooms, from dress and expression to gender and skin color. She perfectly captures the emotional trauma the students imagine their teachers will go through as they leave for the summer. Her final illustration hysterically shatters that myth, and will have every teacher cheering aloud. What a perfect end to the school year. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58089-046-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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