Gourmands, armchair or otherwise, with strong stomachs will smack their lips.
A child captured by a hungry monster turns out to have some unusual ideas about preparing dinner.
Though the concept is not altogether new, this trickster tale has some special features of its own to offer—most particularly a set of outstandingly gross recipes like “Eyeball Sushi” and “Cockroach Cola” (“1. Pop the cockroaches in your mouth and crunch until blended. 2. Spit”) that give way at the end to dishes that sound revolting but have edible, even delicious, ingredients. With Sir Gutguzzler and other monstrous friends all sending formal RSVPs, each missive a glued-in, folded feature for little fingers to tease apart, Beast is looking forward to a memorable repast. But “Dinner,” a small child with light brown skin and an engaging mop of reddish curls, keeps suggesting improvements. Instead of fattening Dinner up with “putrid swill,” how about some chocolate cake? Rather than adding just a sprinkle of salt and a bare dip into a tub of slime, why not enjoy delightful outings to the sea and the local swamp? Soon Beast is thinking that Dinner doesn’t look like dinner any more…and Beast isn’t looking so beastly to the child, either. But what to feed the guests? Maybe “Chocolate Fingers” without actual fingers? The monsters all have a wonderful dinner. And Dinner does too.
Gourmands, armchair or otherwise, with strong stomachs will smack their lips. (Novelty picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68464-005-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Regarding the responses of his little sister’s friend (see title) with amusement, the big-brother narrator models green...
Right along with a nosy young neighbor, children get an eyeful of a family’s sustainable lifestyle.
Regarding the responses of his little sister’s friend (see title) with amusement, the big-brother narrator models green living. He helps his parents plant a backyard garden and carry fresh produce from a farmers’ market rather than going to the grocery store. The family cuts the lawn with a hand mower, they hang up the wash rather than chucking it into a drier, they heat the family room with a wood stove and cool it with a ceiling fan rather than using more energy-intensive appliances. Looking skeptical but plainly beguiled, red-haired Sheila takes it all in, just as readers will. Smalley never delivers an explicit message here, and by showing rather than telling, she makes these practices look all the more appealing and doable—idealized though they are in Emery’s painted views of lush gardens, cozy indoor scenes and hardworking but ever-smiling adults and children.Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-88448-326-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
The voice may be adult, but the experience is recalled vividly enough to bring young readers along. (Picture book. 6-8)
Warm memories of visits to Grandpa’s house, laced with sentiment and sprinkled with Salish.
Campbell (Shi-shi-etko, also illustrated by LaFave, 2005) draws from childhood experiences to recapture the excitement of visiting her elder relative’s farm. With a gaggle of cousins, the young narrator explores grand-auntie’s old log yuxkn, climbs into the hayloft, feeds crabapples to a horse, gleefully pleases an irritated pig, rejects Grandpa’s pokerfaced offerings of “weird food”—“Don’t want no Rocky Mountain oysters. Don’t want liver or tripe, neither”—and ventures into the dusty storage room to see his World War II medals. LaFave’s cartoon illustrations, informally drawn and digitally colored in transparent washes, capture the exhilaration, sending four energetic youngsters in sneakers and short pants roaming through a succession of comfortably well-kept rural scenes. The lack of pronunciation guidance may cause non-Salish readers to stumble over some lines (“Our grand-aunties and grand-uncles call us kids schmém’i?t”), but the joy of being part of a large family gathering and romping about while the grownups chatter and laugh somewhere else will be familiar to a wide audience.
The voice may be adult, but the experience is recalled vividly enough to bring young readers along. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55498-084-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
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