A winner. (Picture book. 4-8)
Two boys get carried away when their mom tells them they will have a surprise at dinner.
Little brother Leo thinks it’s curly fries, but the young narrator starts thinking…and that’s how they get into trouble! They brainstorm a list of ever bigger and better possibilities (a bike! a new car! a swimming pool!), and finally, with visions of grass skirts and volcanoes in their heads, they conclude it must be an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii. Both voice and reasoning are hysterically, authentically childlike. Dynamic, rapid-fire collage-and-pencil illustrations capture the zany escalation. The text increases in size, replicating their ever bolder assertions. Excited, they tell everyone at school, where even the staff celebrates by giving the students an extra 10-minute break. But when they get home, the siblings discover a very different surprise awaits them, leaving the narrator feeling rather sick until contagiously enthusiastic Leo cheers him up. How lucky can a kid get? This is a quirky, spot-on snapshot of family life, perfect for family sharing and repeated readings. And children will love examining the whimsical, surprisingly delightful details in the drawings.
A winner. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0809-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If a school pep rally could walk and talk, this kid would be it.
A great prescription for kids who tremble at the thought of their first day of school.
A young African American girl with deep brown skin, round cheeks, and an infectious smile spends her first day of school celebrating spirit in many ways. With her hair in two gigantic puffballs, she shows her school spirit with snazzy shoes (“STOMP, STOMP!”), her backpack (“ZIP, ZIP!”), and her “loud…clear” singing in class (“ABC, 123!”). Her spirit surfaces in onomatopoeic words on nearly every double-page spread, contributing to the high energy of the story. Morrison’s vibrant oil paintings, reminiscent of those by artist and NFL player Ernie Barnes, feature close-up perspectives of the little girl and everyone she encounters while they reveal lots of diversity both in her neighborhood and at school. She even has a black male teacher—a rare demographic in American elementary schools—who captivates his class during storytime. Like its predecessors, I Got the Rhythm(2014) and I Got the Christmas Spirit (2018), this picture book establishes a sentence pattern that persists, one that will help nascent readers predict what comes next. Each line begins with a personal pronoun and an active-voice verb—“I share,” “I breathe,” “we sing,” etc.—that exudes this protagonist’s enthusiasm for school.
If a school pep rally could walk and talk, this kid would be it. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0261-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Home sweet school
The family from Building Our House (2013) returns, but this time their son tells readers all about life as a home-schooled kid.
As the author’s note explains, Bean draws upon childhood experiences to give readers a peek into the day-to-day life of the family. His mom is his teacher, and his three sisters are his classmates, the “cafeteria” is the kitchen table, and just about any place can be a “classroom.” When the teacher gets tired, she calls for help, and “the substitute teacher” (his dad) takes over. The sub also leads shop class, phys ed, and helps with homework (yardwork)—a list of duties that feels rather rigid in its adherence to strict gender roles, but at least the girls all participate in these activities as well. Bean employs a looser, more naïve artistic style here than in Building Our House, and it nicely matches the enthusiastic narration. The family is depicted as an industrious, curious, creative crew, with successive spreads revealing busy scenes of activity and inquiry. The ultimate message of the book seems to be that home schooling, at its best, positions learning as the stuff of life. Every place and every moment holds potential for learning, a message likely to resonate with many home-schooling families while also giving a window into this way of life for others.
Home sweet school . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-38020-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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