This dance-inspired tale can be enjoyed by kids and employed by early childhood professionals.
A debut picture book invites readers to embark on a dance-filled adventure to befriend someone new.
It’s time to visit Tammy the Troll, a purple-haired, diamond-bellied creature who lives in the forest. But this won’t be just any old trip: McDermott’s series opener models storytelling through dance by including movement suggestions and prompts next to each short paragraph of text. Narrator Konora (her stage name) is the readers’ guide, asking them to join her and a group of classmates on a journey through the woods to find Tammy. As Konora, a white dancer, tells the story, small photographs of her demonstrating the appropriate movements appear next to the prompts. She leads readers and the classmates across tangled roots and mountains to the tree in which Tammy lives. When a search through Tammy’s house proves fruitless (“Knock on an imaginary front door,” suggests Konora), the kids perform a friendship dance and climb across a bridge, after which they discover the troll and present her with a gift. But the adventure isn’t over, as the children (and readers) still have to get home. This delightful narrative is a wonderful choice for dance teachers, librarians, and other educators who regularly work with preschoolers. While children will find the story charming, the adult professionals appear to be the target audience of Konora’s ballet-inspired dance tips and tricks. Gheorghita’s vivid, three-dimensional digital illustrations portray kids of mostly light skin tones, with the exception of one child.
This dance-inspired tale can be enjoyed by kids and employed by early childhood professionals.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 978-1955555661
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Once Upon A Dance
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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