Completes a seasonal round with dashes of mystery, adventure, and conflict resolved in a wash of bonhomie…plus some big...
The annual celebration of Dragon’s Day to mark the beginning of summer is very nearly spoiled once again for the residents of Hidden Valley when all the fireworks disappear.
It’s really just a misunderstanding. Emerging as she does once a year from the lake, blue-skinned Aqua—described as looking “just like a mermaid” but with legs rather than fins in the illustrations—secretly gathers up the fireworks and other unattended treasures to keep them safe. When Yula, Ticky, and the other residents (who are drawn as diverse, anthropomorphic woodland creatures) confront the supposed thief, she swims off in a rage. Then her pursuers follow in a fishlike submarine they find that’s named Olivier—but are swallowed by the supposedly legendary dragon that had been sleeping at the bottom of the lake. High feelings turn to warm ones after everyone in the valley is treated to a spectacular display as the surprised dragon rises up, spouting a fountain of multicolored rockets (turns out Aqua had hidden them in the sub). Porta brings the ungainly charm of his three previous seasonally themed Hidden Valley outings to this (probable) closer, filling out the ensemble cast with further unconventional characters and leaving Aqua, Olivier, the dragon, and all the rest gathered at a festive banquet beneath moonlit trees.
Completes a seasonal round with dashes of mystery, adventure, and conflict resolved in a wash of bonhomie…plus some big explosions. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-911171-68-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up.
In Murray’s children’s debut, when a gingerbread man made by schoolchildren gets left behind at recess, he decides he has to find his class: “I’ll run and I’ll run, / As fast as I can. / I can catch them! I’m their / Gingerbread Man!”
And so begins his rollicking rhyming adventure as he runs, limps, slides and skips his way through the school, guided on his way by the friendly teachers he meets. Flattened by a volleyball near the gym, he gets his broken toe fixed by the kindly nurse and then slides down the railing into the art teacher’s lunch. Then it’s off to the principal’s office, where he takes a spin in her chair before she arrives. “The children you mentioned just left you to cool. / They’re hanging these posters of you through the school.” The principal takes him back to the classroom, where the children all welcome him back. The book’s comic-book layout suits the elementary-school tour that this is, while Lowery’s cartoon artwork fits the folktale theme. Created with pencil, screen printing and digital color, the simple illustrations give preschoolers a taste of what school will be like. While the Gingerbread Man is wonderfully expressive, though, the rather cookie-cutter teachers could use a little more life.
Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25052-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
Desperation confused for hysterics.
Harris’ latest makes an urgent plea for somber reflection.
“Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!” Right from the get-go, readers are presented with three rules for reading this book (“Don’t look at this book!” “Do look at your listener!” “Get your listener to look at you!”). But the true lesson is in the title itself: If anyone listening to this book laughs, you have to start it all over. Challenge accepted? Good. Sheer frenetic energy propels what passes for a narrative as the book uses every trick up its sleeve to give kids the giggles. Silly names, ridiculous premises, and kooky art combine, all attempting some level of hilarity. Bloch’s art provides a visual cacophony of collaged elements, all jostling for the audience’s attention. Heavily influenced by similar fourth wall–busting titles like The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992) by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith, and the more contemporary The Book With No Pictures (2014) by B.J. Novak, these attempts to win over readers and make them laugh will result in less giggles than one might imagine. In the end, the ultimate success of this book may rest less on the art or text and more on the strength of the reader’s presentation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Desperation confused for hysterics. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-42488-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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