A mostly compassionate primer on manners that also recognizes that no one, not even a dragon, is perfect.
What would you expect when a dragon comes to play and sleep over?
Only the best-behaved dragon ever. This small green dragon and her sibling companions, a small, Black-presenting child and somewhat older Asian-presenting child, spend the day at the siblings’ house. A pattern in the text emerges. “When a dragon comes to” stay, play, eat, and get ready for bed, readers are asked to evaluate the dragon’s behavior. “At dinner, does a dragon slurp? / Or throw her food or moan or burp? / And does she spill food on the floor? / Or bang her spoon? Or bellow, ‘More!’?” Even the youngest listeners will soon know the answer and chime in. “Why, no! Dragons don’t do / that!” Then, in the text that follows, the dragon models good manners and helpful behavior. But even this dragon isn’t perfect. “[I]f she’s overtired or sad, / that’s when a dragon might turn bad.” Describing the dragon, and not her behavior, as “bad” for the sake of a rhyme is distressing, but the text also offers several suggestions to turn the dragon’s mood around. Beardshaw’s illustrations, largely in a saturated pastel palette, depict a cute, snubby-snouted, and not-at-all-scaly dragon, and they add quietly humorous details to enhance a calm but never boring read. Both concept and pattern are reminiscent of Jane Yolen and Mark Teague’s How Do Dinosaurs…? series, but this title has a much more domesticated feel. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-21-inch double-page spreads viewed at 51% of actual size.)
A mostly compassionate primer on manners that also recognizes that no one, not even a dragon, is perfect. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4338-3448-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Out in time for the chilliest season, this offers a solution to winter blues while adding to the growing list of yeti...
When the winter gets rough, what is a yeti to do?
Readers follow a nameless yeti accompanied by a stuffed toy yeti in a simple narrative. Yetis love several things about winter: waking up to quiet, snowy mornings, drinking hot chocolate, sliding down hills, building snow castles, frolicking in the snow and pretending to be Godzilla, ice-skating “Yeti style” (belly down). Nevertheless, it isn’t entirely grand for yetis in the winter, for they, too, experience winter blues, when hot-chocolate supplies have been depleted and their cold, wet fur won’t dry. And so they miss the warm summer: playing outdoors for long hours, looking for sea creatures, producing sea-monster beauty contests, building sand castles, and zipping down splashy slides, also yeti-style. They miss the summer nights and listening to the sound of crickets, wishing on shooting stars, and gazing at the hundreds of fireflies. Vogel, in his debut as both author and illustrator, contrasts the white, gray, barren winter spreads with lively green backyards, sunny beach days, and blue summer nights. The yeti’s expressions merit great attention, as do the nod to a yeti-fied version of a Sendak classic and such important scene-setting details as the radiators found in cold-weather homes.
Out in time for the chilliest season, this offers a solution to winter blues while adding to the growing list of yeti protagonists. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4170-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A simple story enhanced by its funny, gently ironic illustrations.
A little girl diligently gets ready for her day but leaves lots of messes in her wake.
The unnamed girl has light brown skin and dark brown curls similar to her dad’s, and her mom is white. The characters in the digital illustrations have big, exaggerated eyes. The child narrates the text matter-of-factly in simple rhyming sentences: “Time to go potty. I can do this! / Mommy is there to make sure I don’t miss.” Each double-page spread presents a slightly different, humorous visual interpretation of the situation, and it’s in this juxtaposition that the book shines. The cat’s in the hamper, underwear and socks are on the floor, and the pink toilet paper is trailing all over. The two parents seem a little overwhelmed. As they both try to get the girl into her clothes, one arm escapes, and the dad is really sweating from exertion. She insists on tying her laces and buttoning her coat, and the illustrations show the exuberant but incomplete results. As the girl grabs her backpack, her apple rolls out, and Mommy has to grab it. At school, she hangs her coat up, but somehow it lands on the floor (her scarf is also awry), and observant viewers will notice that her shoelace is still untied. In her diverse classroom, she proudly announces: “But this time Daddy, I won’t cry”—and now readers can believe her: there’s nary a tear in sight.
A simple story enhanced by its funny, gently ironic illustrations. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60537-342-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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