A raucous tale for young noodle enthusiasts.
Grant’s rhyming picture book introduces kids to various pasta varieties.
Charli is a young girl who can’t get enough noodles. Clad in a tutu with her hair in wild, noodle-y blond curls, she declares, “I do not care what goes on top! Just don’t let the noodles stop!” The scenes alternate between relatively realistic and whimsical as Charli lassos her younger brother with fettucine, shreds on a linguine-strung guitar, and has a fusilli food fight with family. On ravioli-shaped pillows, Charli dreams of noodles dancing, and the silliness continues as Charli cleans outs the shelves in a grocery store’s pasta aisle. Overall, this is a lighthearted, hyperbolic read-aloud. It offers plenty of pasta terminology throughout, with Charli’s doll sometimes helpfully holding up a pronunciation guide; the rhyme scheme is well maintained throughout. The story ends with Charli asking to share her noodles with the reader, followed by a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs and a glossary of noodle shapes. Weaver’s cute, full-color illustrations features some airbrushed details that look a bit muddy, but this doesn’t affect the whimsy. Charli is depicted in the illustrations as White, and secondary characters have a range of skin tones.
A raucous tale for young noodle enthusiasts.Pub Date: June 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73464-788-4
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The accessibility of the text and the treat of revealing Zelda should especially delight the very young.
Fanciful new animals are introduced in pictures and simple poetry.
When is a goose not just a goose? When she's crossed with another, unlikely animal. Or maybe Zelda's just pretending. A clear overlay produces a fantastic new creature on each right-hand page, and a two-line verse on each left-hand page describes it: "GOOSEPHANT. If I caught a cold, then I suppose / I'd need an hour to blow my nose." Opposite, the yellow goose's body and wing are clearly visible, with elephant legs, ears, tail and trunk overlaid. Readers then get the extra fun of pulling back the clear layer to reveal Zelda the goose beneath. There are 11 animals in all, including a Goosnail, Chamelegoose (whose verse is backgrounded by mottled green camouflage), Googiraffe, Goosey Bee (with a honeycomb background), Goosey Glowworm ("I'm not afraid to go out at night"), Goosquid ("I can squirt out clouds of ink. / Good to hide in—not to drink!"), Goosey Peacock, Ladybug Goose, Whalegoose, and Butterfloose. Loth's final two-page spread offers a nifty poetic lesson. Zelda can pretend to be all of these other creatures, but she's always herself, and just what she wants to be. Loth's minimal illustrations are, as always, perfection, though invented animals (and their names) are hit-and-miss. Backgrounds nicely complement both verses and their matching creatures.
The accessibility of the text and the treat of revealing Zelda should especially delight the very young. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4076-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A joyful take on a serious lesson.
The clothes make the Huey in Jeffers’ picture-book ode to nonconformity.
In what promises to be the first in a series about the Hueys, little egg-shaped creatures with just lines for limbs, the cast of characters are indistinguishable from one another until a fellow named Rupert knits himself an orange sweater. The text plainly states that “most of the other Hueys were horrified!” when Huey strolls by in his jaunty new duds. And the subsequent line, “Rupert stood out like a sore thumb,” is delightfully understated, since his oval form wrapped up in an orange sweater looks rather sore-thumb–like. Then, another Huey named Gillespie decides that “being different was interesting,” and he knits himself a sweater just like Rupert’s. This gets the proverbial ball of yarn rolling, and, in scenes reminiscent of The Sneetches, soon many, many Hueys are knitting and donning identical orange sweaters in order to “be different too!” In Jeffers’ expert hands, the message of respecting individuality comes through with a light touch as Rupert concludes the story by deciding to shake things up again as he dons a hat. “And that changed everything,” reads the closing text, with a page turn revealing a little parade of Hueys decked out in a broad array of different clothing, from feather boas to pirate hats.
A joyful take on a serious lesson. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-399-25767-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 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.
