Middleton’s quirky debut features a spunky heroine and her troublesome, tenacious tooth. Attracted by her father’s tales of a fairy bearing money, Tabitha is overjoyed when she discovers her first loose tooth. Although the recalcitrant tooth wriggles promisingly, it does not fall out. Undeterred, Tabitha concocts some extraordinary schemes to relieve herself of it. Alas, her wacky attempts—which include lassoing a tortoise and tying the string to her tooth, vigorous bouncing on the trampoline, and endeavoring to attract the attentions of a Venus flytrap—all fail to eject the stubborn thing. Desolate and dejected, Tabitha resigns herself to a night without a visit from the Tooth Fairy when a renegade sneeze propels the tooth from her mouth. Middleton’s hilarious tale is just the right prescription for children apprehensively awaiting the loss of their own first tooth, and they’ll be too busy giggling over Tabitha’s escapades to ponder their own anxieties. The offbeat illustrations perfectly complement the text; simple, flat drawings whose bright colors deliberately overlap the lines are set on oversized pages, allowing full range for giant open mouths or off-the-page trampoline bounces. Accompanied by her faithful feline, Tabitha is as much fun to watch as she is to read about. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8037-2583-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A real treasure of a book for any child who has struggled to learn a skill.
A young Black boy struggles with writing—until a special guest visits his class.
Abdul loves to tell stories about the people in his neighborhood, and his friends at school love hearing them. But whenever he tries to write down his stories in a notebook, spelling rules confuse him, and his “scribbly, scratchy, scrawly letters” never stay on the lines. Abdul decides that his stories are not for books. One day, a visitor comes to Abdul’s class; Mr. Muhammad—a Black man with a flattop haircut like Abdul’s and whose sneakers, like Abdul’s, have “not a single crease or scuff”—is a writer who urges the students to “write new stories with new superheroes.” Abdul feels motivated to give writing another shot, but again he ends up with endless erasure marks and smudges. Mr. Muhammad shows Abdul his own messy notebook, and Abdul, who is left-handed, decides to try writing without erasing. He makes a mess but searches through the clutter for sentences he loves. He rewrites and rewrites and works on his mistakes until he forms a story he likes, proudly claiming the title of writer. Bright, full-color, textured digital illustrations depict a racially diverse, joyful community. This story offers an honest portrayal of learning differences and demonstrates the importance of role models who reflect kids’ own backgrounds. It is a lovely addition to the shelf of meaningful children’s books portraying Black Muslim Americans in everyday situations. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A real treasure of a book for any child who has struggled to learn a skill. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6298-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
