For fans of the Ogglies only.
The Ogglies are back and want to attend school (A Dragon Party for Firebottom, 2016).
Firebottom, their pet dragon, flies them and Oggly-Grandma to school, where the students and their teacher, Mrs. Lucy, don’t blink an eye at their unusual appearance: green skin, huge bulbous noses, and three horns on their heads. In fact, when Mrs. Lucy gets an emergency phone call, she thinks nothing of leaving Oggly-Grandma in charge. With her, the class draws pictures, demonstrates their weightlifting abilities, and flies to the pond to have a mud-splashing contest and learn the mudpuddle song: “We’re gonna have a puddly party, / Gonna make it fine and farty, / Gonna make ourselves all yucky, / Noone’s ever been so mucky.” (The music and lyrics are on the last page.) Firebottom washes and dries the students, and the Ogglies declare that it was so much fun that the whole family will attend the next day. Dietl plays with the concept of a substitute teacher with unconventional ideas about how to teach, and his Ogglies, with their love of stink and garbage and grossness, will certainly appeal to the lowbrow humor of early elementary students. Aside from the Ogglies, there is only one student of color in the class of nine. The lengthy text is rather small (and inexplicably smaller on two pages in particular) and sometimes overlaps the pictures, making it difficult to read.
For fans of the Ogglies only. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-76036-023-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Starfish Bay
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A fairy-tale mashup light as a feather and pretty as a sunny morning.
The scion of Janet and Allan Ahlberg continues the family tradition with another novelty fractured fairy tale—actually, make that tales.
Lucy begins right on the endpapers with a story for her dog, Mr. Barker, but by the title page it is clear he isn’t listening. He leaps out of the window of her room—a child’s delight with books and toys and a mural that will figure prominently in the rest of the tale. It’s a cutout window, so Lucy pops through herself, finding a golden-haired girl eating porridge on the other side. Lucy muses, “I know where we are,” and invites Goldilocks to leave with her, as the bears are on their way home. They run to the straw house of the three little pigs (Goldie does not let go of her bowl of porridge), where they suggest that the pigs join them to avoid the wolf. They pop through to three more fairy-tale settings, each time peering through a cutout window to the next scene and bringing along characters from the preceding tale before returning to Lucy’s bedroom. There are nice details, such as the drafting table upon which the piggies are sketching a house of sticks, and lovely sunlit colors in each spread. Within this most European of conceits, Ahlberg injects some diversity: Goldie is blonde, Jack is a redhead, Lucy is a brunette with tea-colored skin, and Sleeping Beauty might be Latina or South Asian in her heritage.
A fairy-tale mashup light as a feather and pretty as a sunny morning. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8124-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Mizielinskis have crafted a civilization that is clever and compassionate, hardworking and fun-loving; it is a pleasure...
In this companion to Welcome to Mamoko (2013), the wordless, hunt-and-find scenes depict the next millennium. Only the settings are futuristic, however; the daily dramas are universal.
The opening spread names 32 animals and extraterrestrials, inviting readers to follow a unique thread for each one and to invent a narrative: “You tell the story!” Viewers first witness the characters in tall apartment pods, crisscrossed by ramps. Inside the circular windows and on the streets, these characters establish their identities: rock star, delivery driver, surfer dude, robot-builder and baby in a bubble. The creatures visit natural settings with exotic flora; interact near an enormous, pink transformer, while technicians fiddle with its innards; and revel in a concert and rocket race. Flying surfboards, machines shaped like UFOs and teleportation are among the modes of transport. Situations develop in busy, but not overwhelming, rainbow-hued compositions rendered in mixed media: An ET gets lost, the baby bear’s bubble bursts, a pig falls in love. Fans of the first title will recognize animal types and family names; they may speculate on relationships. An “old world” part of the city, with its adorned buildings and familiar military statue, will send close lookers back to the original to compare the effects of time.
The Mizielinskis have crafted a civilization that is clever and compassionate, hardworking and fun-loving; it is a pleasure to inhabit and visit. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7125-9
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Big Picture/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
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