A useful and compassionate tale about inclusivity for kids and parents.
A family learns about accepting and accommodating differences in this fourth installment of a picture-book series.
Princess Penelope gets along well with her brothers, Stewie and Zoom, which is easy because they enjoy doing the same things. But we’re not all alike, as Penelope’s teacher explains: “Everyone’s mind is something to appreciate, and it is important to have some fun with other kids who may seem to like very different things than you do.” Penelope has her doubts, but when her mother invites a classmate on the autism spectrum for a play date, she and her brothers are game. Welcoming someone with Eric’s sensitivities doesn’t come naturally for the boisterous siblings, but the get-together goes well, even when their classmate becomes overwhelmed at one point. The book includes play-date tips for neurotypical families and for parents of special needs kids. The team of Bronstein and Young (Stewie BOOM! and Princess Penelope: The Case of the Eweey, Gooey, Gross and Very Stinky Experiment, 2016, etc.) is realistic about such matters as the need to practice skills like using quiet voices or being flexible: “Stewie and I practiced not pitching a fit. It took some practicing,” says Penelope dryly. The children’s quick acceptance of behaviors like Eric’s arm flapping may be overly rosy, but the book does help prepare neurotypical kids for what to expect—including having fun. Young’s delightfully comic, affectionate illustrations with a diverse cast support and enrich the story.
A useful and compassionate tale about inclusivity for kids and parents.Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9972962-8-0
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Nothing But The Truth Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wonderful, indeed
A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot.
Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin’s text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read “This is the first time / There’s ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do” capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading “Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?” shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin’s fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-’n’-roll band of mice paralleling the children’s own band called “The Missing Teeth”—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime.
Wonderful, indeed . (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37671-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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