A how-to manual in which a love of reading shines.
A young girl greatly wants to befriend a bear; she just needs to find one first.
Julia, a tot with a messy brown ponytail and one slouchy sock, loves to play outside. A ruddy (white) complexion and a bandaged knee confirm her nature-loving ways. While outdoors, she plays with many animal friends: hide-and-seek with Abigail the groundhog, tree-climbing with Scotty the squirrel, and, appropriately, farting contests with Frieda the skunk. But what Julia longs to do is play with a bear. A book that she is reading mentions a bear’s favorite snack: honey. She gets a large, sticky pot full of the treat and waits. But it attracts only Scotty. So then she tries a basket of blueberries. After returning from lunch, she finds large, blue paw prints and her book missing! This ursine-loving gal just may have found someone to have a “bearnormous” picnic with—and a reading buddy as well. A palette of greens and browns, with bright pops of yellow, freshens the somewhat pedestrian illustrations (although the bear’s cozy treetop library is quite enviable, and his spectacles are a nice touch).
A how-to manual in which a love of reading shines. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-2-924786-47-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CrackBoom! Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Humorous, engaging illustrations support a slight but amusing tale.
The members of the Farmer family keep blaming their problems on their goat.
When the goat escapes from his pen, he gets into mischief—but is it he who tramples Mrs. Farmer’s petunias? Did the goat eat Andrew’s homework? Did he really knock over the paint can? Eat all the cupcakes for Archer’s birthday party? And how about the gum on Mr. Farmer’s seat? Mr. Farmer correctly observes that “Goats don’t chew gum.” Andrew retorts: “Escape Goat does.” It takes honest Nicolette to finally get to the truth. She has to shout: “You’re punishing the goat for things he didn’t do.” The other family members don’t want to admit their own foibles, but in a slapstick scene Andrew throws a ball that hits the water pitcher carried by Mrs. Farmer; the water spills onto Uncle Nathan, who’s carrying a basket of muffins; the muffins are hurled at Mr. Farmer who drops a huge salad. In the midst of this great ado, Nicolette sensibly points out the goat grazing nearby and says: “The goat didn’t do anything.” The story itself lacks real substance and the wordplay on “scapegoat” will almost certainly elude young readers, but they will get the visual jokes, made evident in Glasser’s exuberant ink-and-watercolor cartoons. The humans (white-presenting save Archer, who has beige skin), the animals, and the farm itself are delightfully represented.
Humorous, engaging illustrations support a slight but amusing tale. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288339-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A book new readers will want to take a peek at.
A day in the life of a squirrel for new readers.
Striking photographs of a gray squirrel are paired with short, declarative sentences in the first person that describe the actions each picture depicts. “I can run” is the first line, and it appears on verso opposite a recto photo of the squirrel, its body stretched into a taut horizontal form moving from left to right with the page turn. Ensuing spreads depict the squirrel hopping, sitting, jumping (quite spectacularly), and so on. Then, two spreads are devoted to the squirrel hiding after a hawk tries to catch it. The drama in this sequence rivals that captured by Nic Bishop in Joy Cowley’s Red-Eyed Tree Frog (1999). Never fear: the squirrel ends the book safe and sound, the final spread showing the barely visible squirrel face poking up and out of a hole in a burl. “I can peek” reads the accompanying text. Although the photography is crisp and clear, pages that depict the squirrel in a tree demonstrate perhaps too well how squirrel camouflage works—there is so little contrast between squirrel body and tree that it is a little hard to see.
A book new readers will want to take a peek at. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3831-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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