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ME, TOO!

Name: ME, TOO!
Author: Annika Dunklee
ISBN: 978-1-77138-104-8

by Annika Dunklee ; illustrated by Lori Joy Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2015

With its familiar themes and fizzy text, this is one both listeners and readers will enjoy.

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Annie is worried when her best friend, Lillemor, befriends Lilianne, the new girl at school.

Annie likes the fact that she and Lillemor have so much in common, which she enumerates in large faux handwritten letters. The fourth reason adds humor to the already lighthearted art and text, when Annie declares that the girls “can both speak another language.” A genuine Swedish phrase comes from Lillemor’s cartoon bubble, translated on the page as “I can speak Swedish,” but Annie’s bubble reads, “Maka looka Oinky Boinky,” translated as, “I can speak Oinky Boinky.” Annie is worried when, instead of receiving her usual hug from Lillemor as she arrives at school one day, she sees Lillemor jumping rope with Lilianne. Her alarm rises as she notes all of the commonalities the other two girls share. All three girls have large heads with friendly faces on small bodies, with differing skin tones and hairdos. The backgrounds are simple, brightly colored and cartoonlike, making good use of negative space. There is no doubt that a happy ending is coming; the silliness and the frequent translations of phrases in three languages (two legitimate and one made up) are what will keep readers engaged. Besides, who can resist reading aloud such phrases as, “Maka kooka Uugghhh!” and “Ooga booga meow!”?

With its familiar themes and fizzy text, this is one both listeners and readers will enjoy. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: April 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-77138-104-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kids Can

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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WILLIAM'S GETAWAY
by Annika Dunklee ; illustrated by Yong Ling Kang

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EEE-MOO!
by Annika Dunklee ; illustrated by Brian Won

- BOOK REVIEW
SPROUT, SEED, SPROUT!
by Annika Dunklee ; illustrated by Carey Sookocheff

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

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WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)