Children may enjoy the silliness and rollicking rhythms despite a few flaws.
This second volume of rhyming verse for children offers humorous takes on various situations.
In this sequel, Fleishman (Twist and Shout!, 2017, etc.) again provides simple-to-understand comic verse for young readers. Don’t be put off by the book’s title; the 20 poems collected here don’t focus on gross-out humor. Many are pieces that depend on Harston’s (Twist and Shout!, 2017, etc.) bright, cartoonlike illustrations, which show diverse characters, for necessary context. For example, the first verse, “Neighbor,” is merely two lines long: “I just met my neighbor. He’s a very friendly guy. / He has 20 ovens. Gee, how strange. I wonder why?” Speculation is put to rest on the facing page, which shows a chef holding a tray of freshly baked muffins. Similarly, the four-line “Ice Skating” advises readers to “never skate the inner part,” which makes sense only with the image, depicting a shark’s fin emerging in a hole near center ice. Sometimes, though, the author and illustrator miss a beat; a crocodile who gets a birthday gift of Crocs is funny, but the picture reveals only the wrapped present, not the juxtaposition of croc/Crocs. Fleishman at times adds a lesson to his verse, but not always successfully. “Butterfly Catchers,” for example, anthropomorphizes the insects, teaching incorrect biology and making young entomologists feel guilty for the wrong reasons. (Some of the creatures are endangered, but there are no mother and baby butterflies whose hearts can be broken.)
Children may enjoy the silliness and rollicking rhythms despite a few flaws.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73247-703-2
Page Count: 56
Publisher: FBT Poetry, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
With the same delightfully irreverent spirit that he brought to his retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" (1987), Marshall enlivens another favorite. Although completely retold with his usual pungent wit and contemporary touches ("I don't mind if I do," says Goldilocks, as she tries out porridge, chair, and bed), Marshall retains the stories well-loved pattern, including Goldilocks escaping through the window (whereupon Baby Bear inquires, "Who was that little girl?"). The illustrations are fraught with delicious humor and detail: books that are stacked everywhere around the rather cluttered house, including some used in lieu of a missing leg for Papa Bear's chair; comically exaggerated beds—much too high at the head and the foot; and Baby Bear's wonderfully messy room, which certainly brings the story into the 20th century. Like its predecessor, perfect for several uses, from picture-book hour to beginning reading.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1988
ISBN: 0140563660
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988
Vital messages of self-love for darker-skinned children.
On hot summer nights, Amani’s parents permit her to go outside and play in the apartment courtyard, where the breeze is cool and her friends are waiting.
The children jump rope to the sounds of music as it floats through a neighbor’s window, gaze at stars in the night sky, and play hide-and-seek in the moonlight. It is in the moonlight that Amani and her friends are themselves found by the moon, and it illumines the many shades of their skin, which vary from light tan to deep brown. In a world where darkness often evokes ideas of evil or fear, this book is a celebration of things that are dark and beautiful—like a child’s dark skin and the night in which she plays. The lines “Show everyone else how to embrace the night like you. Teach them how to be a night-owning girl like you” are as much an appeal for her to love and appreciate her dark skin as they are the exhortation for Amani to enjoy the night. There is a sense of security that flows throughout this book. The courtyard is safe and homelike. The moon, like an additional parent, seems to be watching the children from the sky. The charming full-bleed illustrations, done in washes of mostly deep blues and greens, make this a wonderful bedtime story.
Vital messages of self-love for darker-skinned children. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55271-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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