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 invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way.
A young boy sees things a little differently than others.
Noah can see patterns in the dust when it sparkles in the sunlight. And if he puts his nose to the ground, he can smell the “green tang of the ants in the grass.” His most favorite thing of all, however, is to read. Noah has endless curiosity about how and why things work. Books open the door to those answers. But there is one question the books do not explain. When the wind comes whistling by, where does it go? Noah decides to find out. In a chase that has a slight element of danger—wind, after all, is unpredictable—Noah runs down streets, across bridges, near a highway, until the wind lifts him off his feet. Cowman’s gusty wisps show each stream of air turning a different jewel tone, swirling all around. The ribbons gently bring Noah home, setting him down under the same thinking tree where he began. Did it really happen? Worthington’s sensitive exploration leaves readers with their own set of questions and perhaps gratitude for all types of perspective. An author’s note mentions children on the autism spectrum but widens to include all who feel a little different.
An invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60554-356-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Redleaf Lane
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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
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