Fun and energy staled by tired tropes.
Foolish prejudice and Little Rascals–type antics come to an inevitable conclusion in Pippin-Mathur’s fantasy realm of dragons and princesses.
A dragon is fierce. He lives in a land that is full of rocks and dark with the smoke of frighteningly fiery breath—in a word, wonderful. That is until two princesses—one pale-skinned, the other brown-skinned, and both festooned in tutus and ruffles—invade and begin to change everything. Craggy rocks are covered in flowers, flaming burps are replaced with finery and tea parties, and his fellow dragons are taken by the cuteness and pastels. Desperate to oust the interlopers, the dragon turns to his longtime enemy, a pale-skinned knight, to rid his kingdom of the princesses. But when the knight uses the opportunity to ensnare all the other dragons at once, it is the princesses who come to the rescue, terrifying the knight with an incendiary burp. Seeing the princesses in a new light, the dragon finally embraces their presence and the changes they’ve brought. Awash in pastels, the illustrations offer bright, dynamic spreads that smoothly employ varying perspectives and pace the momentum of the page turns. With its unimaginative gender opposition, however, the narrative unfortunately fails to match the illustrations’ draw for readers—especially for those who already don’t find ferocity and flowers to be mutually exclusive.
Fun and energy staled by tired tropes. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6138-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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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
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