Sure to provoke giggles, this delightful tale also helps girls to revel in their bodies.
In this debut picture book, girls at a sleepover learn that farts are nothing to be embarrassed about.
Six little girls are enjoying a slumber party. In the morning, a sound erupts, followed by a bad smell near the hostess. The friends try to pin down the nature of this smell, guessing everything from peanuts to broccoli to dirty diapers. An Asian girl with glasses concludes that “it was clearly a FART.” This dismays the hostess, especially when the bespectacled girl proclaims that it’s “foul and not proper” for girls to fart. But another guest, a girl with curly red hair, just laughs, saying that farting is natural. The girls all confess that they, too, toot, making them laugh. The body makes all kinds of noises. In the end, it’s the only body you have, “So appreciate it for all that it does. / And just love yourself, simply because.” In their book, Wheelock and Evans assure girls that there’s nothing unfeminine about normal bodily functions and sounds. Moreover, girls are encouraged not just to accept themselves, but to support one another as well. None of this seems didactic because of the tale’s humor, along with the pleasing rhyme and meter. Sonke’s (The Day Punctuation Came to Town, 2019) illustrations are a huge plus, lively and expressive, and they depict a nicely diverse crew. But in celebrating natural body noises, the story says nothing about politeness and what’s appropriate with company.
Sure to provoke giggles, this delightful tale also helps girls to revel in their bodies.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73313-741-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: House of Tomorrow
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A warm hug of a picture book wishing all children happy, fulfilled, and meaningful lives.
A picture book filled with positive messages for young children.
From the first “I wish you” page of this picture book to the last, the author of Bedtime for Picco Puppy and other books in the Picco Puppy picture book series (2019) offers children words of encouragement and inspiration, complemented by a gifted artist’s charming illustrations. “I wish you dreams and aspirations, to spread your wings and reach for the stars,” the book begins. On the page, against a deep blue starry sky, a little brown-haired girl steadies a ladder for a blond boy in a space helmet who is reaching for the moon. Children of different races frolic in a snowy wood to illustrate “I wish you joy and laughter, to laugh long and loud until you gasp for breath.” A little Black girl in a wheelchair and a light-skinned boy share an ice cream cone on a leafy autumn day to illustrate “I wish you kindness and generosity, for no act of kindness is ever wasted, no matter how small.” Each “wish” is stated with graceful simplicity; each colorful illustration matches that tone and delights the eye. Two end-of-book features invite children to go back through the pages: “Can You Spot the Famous People?” highlights pictures of some of the book’s characters as if they are child versions of such well-known figures as Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, accompanying each name with a short bio. “Can You Spot the Dog?” identifies each dog in the book with its breed.
A warm hug of a picture book wishing all children happy, fulfilled, and meaningful lives.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-925973-12-9
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Picco Puppy
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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