Not up to the standard Carter set in her previous award-winning outings (Under a Prairie Sky, 2004, etc.). (Picture book....
A story that imagines Night and Day as siblings at play becomes mired in a muddled attempt to do too many things at once.
Night is a prince who chases his older sister, Day, across the sky in a game of hide-and-seek. In a spaceship loaded with comets and stars, he and his teddy bear paint the sky with constellations. Brightly colored, cartoon-like artwork sets the stage for fun, with the sleepy, befuddled prince forgetting, as he does each night, that he's supposed to be hunting for his sister. Astronomical elements are thrown into the text and illustrations almost as an instructional afterthought, too often missing the mark. Picture books in rhyme ought to be a pleasure to read aloud, but here the forced meter makes it hard to establish a natural cadence. Where the rhyme does scan properly, it results in heavy, plodding verse that often weakens the story: "The spaceship takes off with a plug-your-ears boom / and blasts into space with a hold-on-tight zoom. / Teddy's distracted. He just wants his snack. / Milk and fresh cookies smell good in the back."
Not up to the standard Carter set in her previous award-winning outings (Under a Prairie Sky, 2004, etc.). (Picture book. 4-7) .)(Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55469-402-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures.
Pippa conquers a fear of the creatures that emerge from her storybooks at night.
Pippa’s “wonderfully wild imagination” can sometimes run “a little TOO wild.” During the day, she wears her “armor” and is a force to be reckoned with. But in bed at night, Pippa worries about “villains and monsters and beasts.” Sharp-toothed and -taloned shadows, dragons, and pirates emerge from her storybooks like genies from a bottle, just to scare her. Pippa flees to her parents’ room only to be brought back time and again. Finally, Pippa decides that she “needs a plan” to “get rid of them once and for all.” She decides to slip a written invitation into every book, and that night, they all come out. She tries subduing them with a lasso, an eye patch, and a sombrero, but she is defeated. Next, she tries “sashes and sequins and bows,” throwing the fashion pieces on the monsters, who…“begin to pose and primp and preen.” After that success, their fashion show becomes a nightly ritual. Clever Pippa’s transformation from scared victim of her own imagination to leader of the monster pack feels fairly sudden, but it’s satisfying nonetheless. The cartoony illustrations effectively use dynamic strokes, shadow, and light to capture action on the page and the feeling of Pippa's fears taking over her real space. Pippa and her parents are brown-skinned with curls of various textures.
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-9300-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fast and furious action guaranteed to keep new readers laughing and turning pages.
Never underestimate the chaotic fun that magic and an angry bouncing ball can create.
When Frog goes to the library, he borrows a book on magic. He then heads to a nearby park to read up on the skills necessary to becoming “a great magician.” Suddenly, a deflated yellow ball lands with a “Thud!” at his feet. Although he flexes his new magician muscles, Frog’s spells fall as flat as the ball. But when Frog shouts “Phooey!” and kicks the ball away, it inflates to become a big, angry ball. The ball begins to chase Frog, so he seeks shelter in the library—and Frog and ball turn the library’s usual calm into chaos. The cartoon chase crescendos. The ball bounces into the middle of a game of chess, interrupts a puppet show, and crashes into walls and bookcases. Staying just one bounce ahead, Frog runs, hides, grabs a ride on a book cart, and scatters books and papers as he slides across the library furniture before an alligator patron catches the ball and kicks it out the library door. But that’s not the end of the ball….Caple’s tidy panels and pastel-hued cartoons make a surprisingly effective setting for the slapstick, which should have young readers giggling. Simple sentences—often just subject and verb—with lots of repetition propel the action. Frog’s nonsense-word spells (“Poof Wiffle, Bop Bip!”) are both funny and excellent practice in phonetics. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fast and furious action guaranteed to keep new readers laughing and turning pages. (Graphic early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4341-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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