A brazen exploitation of rap's popularity. When the rhythms work, raps works, but this updating of the tortoise and hare fable clunks and stumbles along like a square-wheeled flivver. The rhymes are as predictable as the race's outcome: ``All you animals are no competition./There's no way, under any condition,/I can lose a race to anyone running./You know, I'm not joking and I'm not funning.'' Aesop for the streets is a nice concept, but the only thing ``street'' about this version is the occasional ``yo'' or ``def'' that underscores the artificiality of the rest of the text. Lewin, who teamed with Vozar on Yo, Hungry Wolf! (1993), scores with some breezy pictures. It's nice to see barnyard animals hanging out of row house windows. But readers who don't like rap won't be won over by this misbegotten effort, and those who do will know better. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-32157-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1995
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
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A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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It takes a village to make a school. In Chad, big brothers and sisters lead the way for younger children on the first day of school. Little Thomas is full of questions. When he and the other children arrive, there are no classrooms and no desks. But the teacher's there, holding a trowel. "We will build our school," she declares. Everyone sets to work, making mud bricks that dry in the sun and a roof out of grass and saplings. Thomas loves his lessons; every day he learns something new. At the end of the school year, the minds of the students "are fat with knowledge." And just in time: The rainy season arrives and makes short work of the schoolhouse. Come September, they'll start all over. Rumford's illustrations make great use of color, dark brown skin and bright shirts, shorts and dresses against golden backgrounds, the hues applied in smudgy layers that infuse each scene with warmth—until the gray rains arrive. It's a nifty social-studies lesson tucked into a warm tale of community. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-547-24307-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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