Elephant and Piggie introduce a beginning reader that’s a math lesson: how can three cookies be divided equally among four friends?
A hippo, a crocodile, and two squirrels really want to share, fairly, but getting there isn’t easy. Eventually, the hippo nervously breaks the cookies into six, and then 12 pieces—making the math work perfectly. Dividing three glasses of milk will be a whole different problem. The art looks little like Santat's Caldecott-winning The Adventures of Beekle (2014). It is lighter, cartoonish, and more cheerful than most of his work, matching the silliness of the slight story. The crocodile is endearing rather than threatening, and the hippo is a big, friendly purple one. The blue squirrel wears glasses, and the orange squirrel wears pigtails, denoting gender. Speech bubbles outlined in the same color as the character speaking make following the dialogue fairly easy, though side comments that will go over the heads of most beginning readers are distracting. The story relies on variations in font sizes to communicate excitement and drama. Over 100 words, mostly sight words, are used, with very few repeated more than once or twice, gearing this for readers with some practice behind them. Commentary from Elephant and Piggie that frames the story may sell the book to teachers or parents hungry for more from the popular brand.
In the end it’s a morality tale that may not be worth raiding the cookie jar for . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2636-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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A color-themed vision of what school should be like.
In what amounts to a rehash of The World Needs More Purple People (2020), Bell and Hart address adult as well as young readers to explain what “curious and kind you” can do to make school, or for that matter the universe, a better place. Again culminating in the vague but familiar “JUST. BE. YOU!” the program remains much the same—including asking questions both “universe-sized” (“Could you make a burrito larger than a garbage truck?”) and “smaller, people-sized” (i.e., personal), working hard to learn and make things, offering praise and encouragement, speaking up and out, laughing together, and listening to others. In the illustrations, light-skinned, blond-haired narrator Penny poses amid a busy, open-mouthed, diverse cast that includes a child wearing a hijab and one who uses a wheelchair. Wiseman opts to show fewer grown-ups here, but the children are the same as in the earlier book, and a scene showing two figures blowing chocolate milk out of their noses essentially recycles a visual joke from the previous outing. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The message is worthy, but this phoned-in follow-up doesn’t add anything significant. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-43490-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
A monohued tally of positive character traits.
Purple is a “magic color,” affirm the authors (both actors, though Hart’s name recognition is nowhere near the level of Bell’s), and “purple people” are the sort who ask questions, laugh wholeheartedly, work hard, freely voice feelings and opinions, help those who might “lose” their own voices in the face of unkindness, and, in sum, can “JUST BE (the real) YOU.” Unlike the obsessive protagonist of Victoria Kann’s Pinkalicious franchise, being a purple person has “nothing to do with what you look like”—a point that Wiseman underscores with scenes of exuberantly posed cartoon figures (including versions of the authors) in casual North American attire but sporting a wide range of ages, skin hues, and body types. A crowded playground at the close (no social distancing here) displays all this wholesome behavior in action. Plenty of purple highlights, plus a plethora of broad smiles and wide-open mouths, crank up the visual energy—and if the earnest overall tone doesn’t snag the attention of young audiences, a grossly literal view of the young narrator and a grandparent “snot-out-our-nose laughing” should do the trick. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.4-by-20.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 22.2% of actual size.)
The buoyant uplift seems a bit pre-packaged but spot-on nonetheless. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12196-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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