Readers will cheer to see Buck’s talent brought to light.
Buck the beaver has one oversized front tooth dominating the left side of his mouth, and it’s a major hassle to daily life. That doesn’t stop him from being excited for the upcoming Beaverton Talent Show now that he and his friends are finally old enough to participate. But what is Buck’s talent? Even Buck doesn’t know, since every attempt to develop one ends disastrously when his tooth gets in the way. He takes some comfort in the success of his uncle Henry, a famous sculptor, whose dentition is just like Buck’s, but Buck wants to find his own talent. He tries to eliminate his problem with “Operation Tooth Pull.” After several failed plans, including the string-tied-to-a-doorknob method and cracking open a bunch of nuts, Buck becomes dejected. His bluebird friend tries to cheer him up, attesting that Buck’s talent may be “right under [his] nose.” Meanwhile, the talent show is underway, and Uncle Henry plans to unveil his latest masterpiece at it. In a moment of classic slapstick, Buck causes an accident with the sculpture and frantically works to remedy it. What results is an unveiling of Buck’s amazing talent! This short chapter book is formatted like a graphic novel, combining a low word count with the heavy use of narrative illustrations to make it appropriate for very early readers. The lively cartoon style pairs well with effects like speech balloons for dialogue.
Readers will cheer to see Buck’s talent brought to light. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8107-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Emergent readers will identify with Teeny as someone learning new skills, and her can-do attitude, emboldened by a...
Another odd couple makes its foray into beginning-reader territory with three stories about Teeny the monkey’s efforts to realize her artistic potential while best friend Tugg the gorilla cheers her on.
When Teeny “hears the jungle birds sing,” she wishes to make beautiful music. Denise’s accompanying watercolor falls short of depicting a forlorn monkey, but text asserts, “Teeny looked so sad that Tugg decided he would help her get her wish.” He finds a flutelike stick and places it in Teeny’s path. She discovers it and practices, and ultimately her music inspires other jungle animals to take music lessons. Later attempts at painting and poetry aren’t as immediately successful, which provides a certain distinguishing element to the book. The painting she produces is an abstract portrait of Violet the warthog, which no one initially appreciates. Animal friends laud her laborious effort to write four simple lines of poetry, and Tugg says, “you are on your way to becoming a good writer,” a just-right assessment of earnest, though perhaps not terribly artful, results.
Emergent readers will identify with Teeny as someone learning new skills, and her can-do attitude, emboldened by a supportive community, is a great model for attaining success. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: March 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-514-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
An uneven U.S. debut for Atak, easy peasy for fans of the I Spy genre. (Picture book. 6-8)
Role reversals rule in this (mostly) wordless import.
From the title page, which depicts the head of a child/man (depending on orientation), on, a veteran German illustrator offers even not very attentive viewers a succession of silly switches. Penguins and polar bears share space with owls and moose, among others, in a stylized jungle scene; a rabbit aims a blunderbuss at a frightened hunter; firefighters battle a fountain with flame-spurting hoses; a giant lad takes his tiny parents out for a walk—and that’s not all. Though he paints in a crude style that suits the obvious, easy-to-spot swaps, one scene crowded with small cartoon and comic-book figures from Bart Simpson and Darth Vader to Batman—all with switched heads— adds a dollop of sly humor. The aforementioned gun, an Indian with a feathered headdress, a glimpse of nude swimmers behind a man retrieving a stick for his canine owner and other such “sophistications” are less clever than off-kilter, though. So too is the thoroughly dispensable nonsense rhyme (“I found it quite funny, / Until a snow bunny / Ate all of my paper / —’Twas quite a caper!”) opposite the title page.
An uneven U.S. debut for Atak, easy peasy for fans of the I Spy genre. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-909263-04-8
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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