Young readers will love the cute rhymes and illustrations, and parents will appreciate the tender message.
A young airplane goes on his first flight, gets into some trouble and learns it’s always best to obey his parents.
Arnold A. Airplane is a young biplane (his mother is also a biplane, but his father is a jet) who decides to go for his first solo flight rather than play with his friends. His mother reminds him to follow her rules—no rolls, flips or other dangerous stunts—and to remember all the things he’s been told as he flies. He promises to be good, but once up in the air, he remembers the rules yet decides to forget them since his parents aren’t around; he practices loops and barrel rolls until he makes himself sick, becoming so dizzy he nearly crashes. Then he remembers his father’s advice to be calm in the face of danger. Once he calms down, he’s able to fly again, but just when he thinks he’s out of danger, he realizes there’s nowhere to land. Losing hope, he discovers that he’s had more help than he thought the whole time. The author’s endearing rhyming prose will be easy for young readers to understand, though it’s complex enough for adults to enjoy reading with the kids. The enjoyable illustrations are simple line drawings in bright colors, with a few photographs featuring a model-type Arnold, whose facial expressions are always lively. The story, meanwhile, has an emphasis on listening to elders, learning from parents and trusting in the love of family. Arnold isn’t in danger long enough to worry younger readers, but his journey has enough action for kids to be excited to find out what happens next.
Young readers will love the cute rhymes and illustrations, and parents will appreciate the tender message.Pub Date: April 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1479308446
Page Count: 34
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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