Aims for cleverness but misses the mark.
What’s the point of punctuation?
Babble’s citizens can’t communicate. They can’t tell the difference between speech and thoughts; their words run together. A stranger arrives with a bag. She doles out pink, odd-shaped items, explaining each piece’s function and how it will help the townsfolk: a period, a question mark, quotation marks, an exclamation point, and, finally, a comma (which can become an apostrophe). As each item is introduced—villagers don’t know it’s really an enlarged punctuation mark—it’s incorporated into the narrative in black type and in normal font size. At the outset, the text contains run-on sentences, but the gradual inclusion of punctuation renders the text readable as the story proceeds. Furthermore, on a meta level, communication among the villagers improves as they learn to distinguish between thoughts and vocalizations. This is an odd, confusing, contrived story. The author suggests that thinking and speaking are the same, that they occur simultaneously, and that people can’t differentiate between them. The tale will confound readers who know they can’t “see” punctuation marks when they’re speaking and thinking, though vocal intonation can imply certain marks. Besides marks, the digital pink-toned illustrations depict the villagers but with few discernible details (race and ethnicity are not made clear from either art or text). This suits the text, which, when lacking necessary punctuation, could also be described as ill-defined.
Aims for cleverness but misses the mark. (afterword with information on additional punctuation marks) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6583-7
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
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
Most children will agree the book is “smafunderful (smart + fun + wonderful).” (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)
In this entertaining chapter book, the first in a series, readers meet kind Sir Sidney and the gentle performers and hands in his circus. But Sir Sidney is tired and leaves the circus under the management of new-hire Barnabas Brambles for a week.
That Sir Sidney is beloved by all is quickly established, presenting a sharp contrast to the bully Brambles. The scoundrel immediately comes up with a “to do” list that includes selling the animals and eliminating the mice Bert and Gert. (Gert is almost more distressed by Brambles’ ill-fitting suit and vows to tailor it.) Revealed almost entirely through dialogue, the put-upon animals’ solidarity is endearing. The story, like the circus train now driven by the Famous Flying Banana Brothers, takes absurd loops and turns. The art is fully integrated, illustrating the action and supplementing the text with speech bubbles, facsimile letters and posters, Brambles’ profit-and-loss notes, examples of Gert’s invented vocabulary and more. Brambles’ plans go awry, of course, and he gets his comeuppance. With Bert and Gert acting as his conscience, along with a suit from Gert that finally fits and a dose of forgiveness, Brambles makes a turnaround. Sensitive children may doubt Sir Sidney’s wisdom in leaving his animals with an unscrupulous man, and the closing message is a tad didactic, but that doesn’t blunt the fun too much.
Most children will agree the book is “smafunderful (smart + fun + wonderful).” (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61620-244-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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