Emily Post might raise an eyebrow, but our hero is bound to find fast friends with ill-mannered readers everywhere.
What are manners without kindness? Or, for that matter, fart jokes?
Meet Ms. Elizabeth Picklepop IV. You are delighted to make her acquaintance. After taking her course on manners, readers will receive a certificate of completion. However, when blue-skinned Ms. Picklepop happens to drop an errant paint can, it results in an overly enthusiastic blue blot with eyes that becomes sentient. Every lesson Ms. Picklepop attempts to convey has the unfortunate consequence of attracting the attention of the creature, named Blurp (changing colors with every paint can they chug en route). Though well-intentioned and good-natured, Blurp causes massive paint-splotch–riddled chaos wherever they go, until finally Picklepop can take it no longer and becomes significantly less than well-mannered. Will she see the error of her ways? Derby’s natural inclination to play with paint like a child in a mud puddle comes fully to her aid here. Picklepop’s world is all hedgerows and elegant teas. The sheer, wild exuberance of Blurp comes, then, as a cathartic corrective. The great irony of the tale, of course, is that at the same time that Blurp is instigating a visual cacophony of colors, their manners are impeccable, if riddled with B’s (upon introducing themselves, Blurp says, “Bits bice boo beet boo”). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Emily Post might raise an eyebrow, but our hero is bound to find fast friends with ill-mannered readers everywhere. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81035-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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