by Besty R. Rosenthal and illustrated by Nancy Cote ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2010
Sherman is a young boy with many shoes, but not all of them fit every occasion. “Which shoes does Sherman choose / to go shelling at the shore?” A turn of the page reveals: “He wears flip-flops so his feet won’t get sore.” Sherman’s shoe collection includes skates, flippers, tennis shoes, sneakers, hiking boots, dress shoes, slippers and galoshes. Cote’s gouache-and–watercolor pencil illustrations are sure to appeal to her intended audience—Sherman is full of personality, and the situations he finds himself in are ones that readers will find either already familiar or will want to try out. All the footwear choices are illustrated on the cover and endpapers for readers’ reference. While the scansion of the rhymes is a little off at times, it remains an enjoyable book for sharing, especially useful for that stubborn childhood stage when one pair of shoes becomes a particular favorite. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-25013-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2010
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by Mem Fox & illustrated by Helen Oxenbury ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2008
A pleasing poem that celebrates babies around the world. Whether from a remote village or an urban dwelling, a tent or the snow, Fox notes that each “of these babies, / as everyone knows, / had ten little fingers / and ten little toes.” Repeated in each stanza, the verse establishes an easy rhythm. Oxenbury’s charming illustrations depict infants from a variety of ethnicities wearing clothing that invokes a sense of place. Her pencil drawings, with clean watercolor washes laid in, are sweetly similar to those in her early board books (Clap Hands, 1987, etc.). Each stanza introduces a new pair of babies, and the illustrations cleverly incorporate the children from the previous stanzas onto one page, allowing readers to count not only fingers and toes but also babies. The last stanza switches its focus from two children to one “sweet little child,” and reveals the narrator as that baby’s mother. Little readers will take to the repetition and counting, while parents will be moved by the last spread: a sweet depiction of mother and baby. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-15-206057-2
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
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by Claire Evans ; illustrated by Claire Evans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2022
Superheroes, and readers, will live happily-ever-after.
Why have fairy tales lasted so long? Maybe it’s because they change with every teller.
It takes surprisingly little effort to turn the Three Little Pigs into superheroes. The Big Bad Wolf basically started out as a supervillain, with the ability to blow a house down, and the pigs had to perform spectacular feats to outwit him. In this picture book, the wolf, locked in the Happily Never After tower, devises a plot to escape. Using rotten eggs and spicy ginger, he creates the Gingerbread Man, who makes his way to a baking contest where the three pigs and other fairy-tale characters are competing to win the key to the city. The Gingerbread Man grabs the key, and not even superhero pigs are fast enough to catch him, but with their secret weapon—mustard (which one of the pigs also uses to bake cookies)—they save the day. The morals: Evil never triumphs, and mustard cookies are delicious. The book’s charm is in the details. There are splotches of mustard on the cookies featured on the endpapers, and a sly-looking mouse is hiding on many of the pages. The story even manages to include more than a dozen fairy-tale figures without seeming frenzied. Evans’ use of shading is so skillful that it almost seems possible to reach out and touch the characters. Most of the human characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Superheroes, and readers, will live happily-ever-after. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-68221-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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