It looks bland at first, but it’s a clever perspective changer for NT children as well as a rare chance for young readers...
A young narrator explains that his neurotypical friend is OK, even though he sometimes plays games out of order and doesn’t flap his hands to express emotions.
It’s a neat bit of role reversal. It’s really OK that Johnny arrives for playdates a few minutes late or early (“hopeless when it comes to punctuality”), that his gaze is direct, that he really doesn’t seem interested in knowing everything about hydraulic forklifts, wants to play with other kids (“Maybe he’s a little too obsessed with social interaction”), and never has a meltdown when there’s a fire drill at school. “Mom says that everyone’s brain is different, and different isn’t always wrong.” A closing note for parents offers further bids for acceptance: “as many as 67 in 68 children may be neurotypical. So if your child does not currently have an NT kid in their life, they almost certainly will.” Merry’s stripped-down, neatly drawn generic views of dewy-eyed figures with fixed, tight-lipped smiles neither give the characters any individuality nor do the premise’s ingenuity much service, though they are doubtless calculated to make it easy for the book’s autistic readers to decode.
It looks bland at first, but it’s a clever perspective changer for NT children as well as a rare chance for young readers with autism to see themselves as a point-of-view character. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-84905-721-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Regarding the responses of his little sister’s friend (see title) with amusement, the big-brother narrator models green...
Right along with a nosy young neighbor, children get an eyeful of a family’s sustainable lifestyle.
Regarding the responses of his little sister’s friend (see title) with amusement, the big-brother narrator models green living. He helps his parents plant a backyard garden and carry fresh produce from a farmers’ market rather than going to the grocery store. The family cuts the lawn with a hand mower, they hang up the wash rather than chucking it into a drier, they heat the family room with a wood stove and cool it with a ceiling fan rather than using more energy-intensive appliances. Looking skeptical but plainly beguiled, red-haired Sheila takes it all in, just as readers will. Smalley never delivers an explicit message here, and by showing rather than telling, she makes these practices look all the more appealing and doable—idealized though they are in Emery’s painted views of lush gardens, cozy indoor scenes and hardworking but ever-smiling adults and children.Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-88448-326-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
The voice may be adult, but the experience is recalled vividly enough to bring young readers along. (Picture book. 6-8)
Warm memories of visits to Grandpa’s house, laced with sentiment and sprinkled with Salish.
Campbell (Shi-shi-etko, also illustrated by LaFave, 2005) draws from childhood experiences to recapture the excitement of visiting her elder relative’s farm. With a gaggle of cousins, the young narrator explores grand-auntie’s old log yuxkn, climbs into the hayloft, feeds crabapples to a horse, gleefully pleases an irritated pig, rejects Grandpa’s pokerfaced offerings of “weird food”—“Don’t want no Rocky Mountain oysters. Don’t want liver or tripe, neither”—and ventures into the dusty storage room to see his World War II medals. LaFave’s cartoon illustrations, informally drawn and digitally colored in transparent washes, capture the exhilaration, sending four energetic youngsters in sneakers and short pants roaming through a succession of comfortably well-kept rural scenes. The lack of pronunciation guidance may cause non-Salish readers to stumble over some lines (“Our grand-aunties and grand-uncles call us kids schmém’i?t”), but the joy of being part of a large family gathering and romping about while the grownups chatter and laugh somewhere else will be familiar to a wide audience.
The voice may be adult, but the experience is recalled vividly enough to bring young readers along. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55498-084-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
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