This is one camping trip sure to live up to expectations.
A camping trip for two friends doesn’t quite go as planned.
Tiny, white Mouse is bursting with enthusiasm when she greets big, fuchsia Monster with “Let’s go camping!” But Monster doesn’t know what camping is. Mouse explains: “You walk in the woods. You sleep in a tent. You tell spooky stories.” Monster’s posture says it all (scary!), but Mouse’s promise that there will also be food brings him around—it’s clear from the opening spread that he is ruled by his stomach. Camping-savvy readers will note something missing from Mouse’s checklist of items to pack. And as the duo heads through the woods, their supplies dwindle—apparently Monster, who is round and bristly with a horn on the end of his long snout and two pointy teeth, must be part goat. When they finally reach the hilltop where Mouse has chosen to camp, the truth comes out. Mouse’s face droops as she learns what’s happened, but Monster’s regretful sincerity is genuine, as is Mouse’s. In a twist readers won’t see coming, the two find a (hilarious!) solution to their problem, and Monster turns out to like camping after all. The digital illustrations keep the focus on the friends and their emotions, the slapstick humor coming through loud and clear.
This is one camping trip sure to live up to expectations. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-64832-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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A cheerful story about a spirited girl who saves the day. What could be better than that?
Tiara enjoys the laughter and warmth in her mother’s millinery shop, but when a store with lower-priced hats comes to town, Tiara must find a way to help her mother get her spark—and her customers—back.
“We can’t eat dreams,” Momma tells Daddy and Tiara as they pack up the hat studio and her hopes. Because she can no longer sell hats, Momma accepts a job as an art teacher at Tiara’s school, Height Elementary (a nod, perhaps, to activist Dorothy I. Height, renowned for her hats). Tiara encourages her mother to begin making hats again, but Momma is not ready to talk about or work with hats. One Friday afternoon, in an art class, however, Tiara and the other children convince Momma to allow them to make hats. When Momma helps Tiara’s friend Matti adjust hers, Tiara has an idea that just might remind Momma of the passion she had for hat-making and the joy her hats brought to so many. With this touching tale of tradition and can-do spirit, Lyons interweaves an important element of the African American experience into a well-told story. Tadgell’s illustrations are mostly pastels with punches of bright color, especially on the hats, and have a pleasant dreamlike quality.The author’s note provides background on the African American hat tradition, including a mention of Crowns, by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry (2000).
A cheerful story about a spirited girl who saves the day. What could be better than that? (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8075-7945-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
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