A collection that may elicit a few giggles, and its illustrations may draw a more reluctant crowd.
Comedy is at the center of this rhyming poetry collection from Fleishman with cartoon illustrations by Harston (The Old Testament Sticker Puzzle, 2017, etc.).
Fleishman’s 21 poems for young independent readers have easy-to-grasp vocabulary and plenty of rhymes. Early verses involve a wide variety of topics, such as a ghost who only fits in on Halloween, a boy who carts his piano up 53 flights of stairs for music lessons, and The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy Gale’s farmhouse for sale (complete with dead witch). A standout is “Baby Piper,” in which a child smells something funny and agrees to help change the baby, so long as he doesn’t have to “wipe.” Others are less humorous, such as “Lucky Girl,” in which a gross-out character looks forward to having a wife, and the title poem, which questions the shape of the earth. The tone is reminiscent of classic poet Shel Silverstein’s, but the humor never quite reaches the same level, and some turns of phrase (such as “It eats food of other teddy bears”) read awkwardly. Harston’s boldly colored illustrations, which feature diverse children, add intriguing details, revealing a dangerous staircase in one poem and a roller coaster hazard in another.
A collection that may elicit a few giggles, and its illustrations may draw a more reluctant crowd.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Mindstir Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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