Didactic, confusing and not particularly informative. Seriously? (authors’ notes) (Picture book. 3-8)
Mother and son co-authors tell the story of young Jacob and his time wearing an eye patch to correct two common eye conditions.
Whenever Jacob goes out, people ask him about his eye patch. Curious onlookers feel free to ask the personal question: “Why does your boy wear an eye patch?” (“His eyes need correction,” would be the obvious answer to the nosy.) Normally Jacob doesn’t mind answering questions, but today he is anxious to get to the science store, where he hopes to buy a new light-up globe. Everywhere he turns, people ask about his patch, and his mother is happy to answer, even though Jacob just wants to keep going. Jacob’s thought bubble, “Seriously?” lets readers know his frustration. And that’s it. Built on such a weak premise, this story provides no surprises. Feiffer’s art seems to have been rushed. From page to page, older brother Adam’s face changes, and after a two-block walk from the ice cream store, the ice cream has neither melted nor been licked. At the page turn, the cone simply disappears. The weak narrative is also confusing (at one point, five hours a day is patch time and in another, three hours). Feiffer’s talents are wasted here. Readers wishing for an emotionally satisfying treatment of the same subject should turn to George Ella Lyon and Lynne Avril’s award-winning The Pirate of Kindergarten (2010).
Didactic, confusing and not particularly informative. Seriously? (authors’ notes) (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4767-3732-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
A funny David-versus-Goliath story with a one-word question serving as the slingshot. (Picture book. 3-5)
Doctor X-Ray, a megalomaniac with an X-ray blaster and an indestructible battle suit, crashes through the ceiling of the local mall.
Innocent patrons scatter to safety. But one curious child gazes directly at the bully and asks: “Why?” At first, Doctor X-Ray answers with all the menace and swagger of a supervillain. The curious child, armed with only a stuffed bear and clad in a bright red dress, is not satisfied with the answers and continues asking: “Why?” As his pale cheeks flush with emotion, Doctor X-Ray peels back the onion of his interior life, unearthing powerful reasons behind his pursuit of tyranny. This all sounds heavy, but the humorously monotonous questions coupled with free-wheeling illustrations by Keane set a quick pace with comical results. At 60 pages, the book has room to follow this thread back to the diabolical bully’s childhood. Most of the answers go beyond a child’s understanding—parental entertainment between the howl of the monosyllabic chorus. It is the digital artwork, which is reminiscent of Quentin Blake’s, that creates a joyful undercurrent of rebellion with bold and loose brush strokes, patches of color, and expressive faces. The illustrations harken to a previous era save for the thoroughly liberated Asian child speaking truth to power.
A funny David-versus-Goliath story with a one-word question serving as the slingshot. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6863-0
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
“Lovely is different, weird, and wonderful.” So reads the caption for a white girl with blonde hair and one blue and one...
Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, and this book encourages readers to regard everyone as “lovely.”
In today’s world, with increasingly evident diversity in race, ethnicity, gender expression, sexuality, fashion, body shape, abilities, and choices about everything, the author/illustrator presents people of every description in the bold, brightly colored digital illustrations. Opposites are introduced: “black” for a white young woman clad in black and “white” for a young-looking, brown-skinned woman with flowing white hair. “Simple” appears on a tattooed white arm, along with a few designs, while “complex” is written on a brown arm, with what appear to be elaborate mehndi designs (henna designs applied before a South Asian wedding). A white baby is “soft,” and an older white woman with purple hair, a spiked denim jacket and choker, a nose ornament, and many ear decorations is “sharp.” A “tall” person with Asian features walks a small dog. A “short” smaller, light-brown–skinned male with green hair has a large dog. A gay interracial male couple face an adoring dark-brown–skinned child and mom. These pages read: “Lovely is you. / Lovely is me.” The last double-page spread includes young and old: a white woman in a wheelchair (there is one amputee with a modern prosthetic leg earlier in the book), a goateed man in a bustier, and others of various colors and sizes.
“Lovely is different, weird, and wonderful.” So reads the caption for a white girl with blonde hair and one blue and one brown eye! A simple book with lots of truth. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-939547-37-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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