A comedic happily-ever-after one-on-one read-aloud.
Everyone knows the story of Cinderella—but what about Cinderella’s shoemaker?
After a fairy godmother’s magic runs out before her godchild has shoes for the ball, a shoemaker steps up with perfect glass slippers. But the shoemaker’s clerk, Mona, convinced she’s the one who will marry the prince, persuades the shoemaker to guarantee her royal marriage by making a glass slipper just her size—which is nine, in contrast to the unnamed godchild’s five. The shoemaker, whose love for Mona is unspoken, sadly agrees. When the prince appears, Mona performs a shoe switcheroo, puts “her best foot forward,” and declares herself the prince’s intended. The honorable prince pales, but their wedding is on until a furious (but romantic) fairy godmother intercedes and true love reigns. Comical cartoons in full-page scenes and smaller cameo illustrations pair well with a rhyming, tongue-in-cheek text, though the scenes’ busyness will make them hard to share with groups. Both the fairly wordy text and the premise skew this tale toward older preschoolers at the youngest, as listeners will need both some patience and an understanding of the story this one subverts. The cast is an all-white one, with primary characters running toward caricature: the short, portly shoemaker; homely, frizzy-haired Mona; the Roman-nosed prince; and a decidedly zaftig fairy godmother.
A comedic happily-ever-after one-on-one read-aloud. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7643-5843-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Schiffer
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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