A solid picture book for families looking for a new spin on car-racing stories.
Noah Gouda craves a victory in a lunar car-racing competition in DaVeiga’s picture book.
Noah lives on a moon made of cheese and dreams of driving in its biggest race: the Great Amoonican Grand Brie. A year out from the big event, Noah and best friend Bleu build their racer, the Muenster Monster. They’re thrilled by their creation until they realize that Noah is too short to reach the pedals. By the time the Grand Brie rolls around, Noah has grown enough to drive the car, so he and Bleu enter the race at the last second. They’re up against a number of formidable opponents like Mac N. Cheese, Gorgonzilla, Hank the Hunk, and Betty Cheddar. The Monster’s competition slowly falls away until it’s just Noah and Bleu against Betty in the final turns of the track. This fresh installment in the Biff Bam Booza series is chock-full of cheese-based wordplay, from Noah Gouda’s name to “It could happen, you know? Once in a Bleu moon!” Peres’ illustrations pull inspiration from the bold lines, panels, and dialogue bubbles of comics illustrations to enhance the excitement. Although Noah’s problems solve themselves at two key moments rather too miraculously, that still doesn’t spoil what is ultimately a fun read.
A solid picture book for families looking for a new spin on car-racing stories.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781958050125
Page Count: 43
Publisher: Waterhole Productions LLC
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn.
A young owl achieves his grand ambition.
Owl, an adorably earnest and gallant little owlet, dreams of being a knight. He imagines himself defeating dragons and winning favor far and wide through his brave exploits. When a record number of knights go missing, Owl applies to Knight School and is surprisingly accepted. He is much smaller than the other knights-in-training, struggles to wield weapons, and has “a habit of nodding off during the day.” Nevertheless, he graduates and is assigned to the Knight Night Watch. While patrolling the castle walls one night, a hungry dragon shows up and Owl must use his wits to avoid meeting a terrible end. The result is both humorous and heartwarming, offering an affirmation of courage and clear thinking no matter one’s size…and demonstrating the power of a midnight snack. The story never directly addresses the question of the missing knights, but it is hinted that they became the dragon’s fodder, leaving readers to question Owl’s decision to befriend the beast. Humor is supplied by the characters’ facial expressions and accented by the fact that Owl is the only animal in his order of big, burly human knights. Denise’s accomplished digital illustrations—many of which are full bleeds—often use a warm sepia palette that evokes a feeling of antiquity, and some spreads feature a pleasing play of chiaroscuro that creates suspense and drama.
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31062-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
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