This tale’s jokes and triumphant ending will delight young readers.
A lactose-intolerant tooth fairy saves the day in this gleefully gross picture-book debut.
Following one simple rule on the first day of tooth-fairy school shouldn’t be hard; all Irma has to do is avoid dairy, which will upset her stomach. But when she gets milk and crackers for a snack on the school bus, she doesn’t want to stand out. She drinks the milk but pays the price—squirming when she’s supposed to be paying attention in class, then letting “out a toot / that was long, loud, and smelly.” The other kids laugh, and the teacher scolds Irma, reckoning that a flatulent fairy won’t be able to collect teeth unnoticed. At every turn, Irma fails—until a too-high window has the tooth fairies stymied and Irma’s toots save the day. This book’s concept isn’t unique, but Donnelly’s sometimes-clever rhymes, which offer toot-related vocabulary (farted, flatulate), scan well, and designer/letterer Dukeshire lays out stanzas for easy rhyming despite omitted punctuation. Van Gool’s delightful illustrations have the feel of an animated cartoon; characters almost leap off the page. The tooth-fairy children share similar body types, but their skin tones are a range of colors. Irma’s flatulence is a fantastically gross green cloud sure to delight potty-humor fans.
This tale’s jokes and triumphant ending will delight young readers.Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-77309-4
Page Count: 36
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
An interesting, informative introduction to an unknown woman trailblazer.
Jo wanted to become a doctor, quite uncommon for a girl in late-19th-century America.
Jo had her opportunity when doctors Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell opened a medical school for women. When she graduated, she opened a practice in New York City with a woman colleague, Florence, but few patients came. Jo became a health inspector for the city and was assigned to Hell’s Kitchen, a poor, crowded immigrant neighborhood where there was a high death rate among babies and young children. Dr. Jo found practical solutions to many problems, using her official capacity to implement them. She established a requirement that midwives be trained and licensed and assigned visiting nurses to new mothers. She organized milk stations, designed safe containers for silver nitrate eyedrops for newborns, and designed safe infant clothing that allowed movement and airflow. Kulling employs accessible language and follows a logical sequence of events to provide readers with an understanding of Baker’s strength of character. Swaney’s watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil illustrations carefully complement the events and settings of the text. Baker and Florence are white, and the people of Hell’s Kitchen are depicted in a variety of skin tones, but otherwise all the faces are the same with little indication of emotion, just dots for eyes and little swoops for smiles.
An interesting, informative introduction to an unknown woman trailblazer. (afterword, sources, websites) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-91789-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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