by Diane Fox ; illustrated by Christyan Fox ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 20, 2018
If this is your first friendship book, it will do; if it is your second, pass.
Young Lucy wants a dog but winds up with a bear—but she is under the impression it is a dog.
Ever since she took her first breath, Lucy has wanted a dog. She’s collected dog books, bought a dog bed, and planted a garden for the dog to rummage about in, and she will walk and love the dog forever. One day she takes the plunge. She goes looking for a dog. Not at the pound but casually, around the neighborhood. Despite her dog education, Lucy approaches the first creature she finds, a frog. Well, that won’t work because the frog needs a bath and Lucy has only a shower. Then comes a fox—but he can only be a part-time dog. Overhearing these exchanges is a bear reading a newspaper, who suggests to Lucy he is just what she wants. At first all goes well. Then Bear falls asleep for five months. He also digs a lot and eats way too much porridge. And fetching sticks? They feud, and Bear leaves. Instantly, Bear feels lonely. But so too is Lucy; she puts lost posters everywhere looking for Bear. They reunite. All is well. So what’s new? Not much. The minimalist artwork, which depicts the bear rather like a giant hamster and Lucy as a bespectacled white girl, is mildly amusing. But in the crowded arena of friendship books, this does not stand out.
If this is your first friendship book, it will do; if it is your second, pass. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62779-867-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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by Diane Fox & Christyan Fox ; illustrated by Diane Fox & Christyan Fox
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by Diane Fox ; Christyan Fox ; illustrated by Diane Fox ; Christyan Fox
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by John Segal and illustrated by John Segal ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2011
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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by John Segal & illustrated by John Segal
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by John Segal & illustrated by John Segal
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by John Segal & illustrated by John Segal
by Dana Meachen Rau ; illustrated by Wook Jin Jung ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2013
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the...
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike.
Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end.
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87083-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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by Dana Meachen Rau and illustrated by Melissa Iwai
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