This is how learning math should be—painless, comical and, yes, spectacular.
The vaudevillian Wing Wing Brothers’ attempts to outdo and upstage each other are sure to cause some giggles…and ideally some math learning, as well.
Act 1 is all about comparing amounts and introduces children to the equal, less-than and greater-than signs. Wendell and Wilmer try to one-up each other in the number of spinning plates they are able to balance. In the end, 10=10 predictably becomes 0=0. Act 2 focuses on addition and subtraction and stars Willy, who holds one pie. His brothers each try to nail him with more pies, but he just adds them to his juggling act. When Willy is juggling 4+1=5 pies, the slapstick ending (and subsequent subtraction problem) is not hard to guess. The third act mixes up the addition and subtraction problems with a magic box that causes the brothers to appear and disappear. When all the brothers disappear into the box, green clouds give a hint as to the final slapstick joke. Long seems to know just how long to draw out the shtick so it doesn’t lose readers’ attention, ending on a comical high note. His humorous illustrations—black pencil outlines with digital color that are reminiscent of Mo Willems’ pigeon—will keep kids riveted with the birds’ fantastically expressive faces.
This is how learning math should be—painless, comical and, yes, spectacular. (Math picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2320-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina...
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up.
Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields.
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
Great gobs of glue should be more fun than this. (Picture book. 4-7)
Can there be too much glue? Matty’s about to find out.
Matty’s art teacher warns him that too much glue will never dry, but Matty (and his dad) loves glue; they play with it constantly. So Matty finds the “fullest” bottle in the art room and squirts it all over his project. Then he flops down in the middle of the mess…and gets stuck. He’s “a blucky stucky mess!” His friends try to lasso him with yarn and haul him out, but the yarn breaks and gets stuck; now, he’s “a clingy stringy, blucky stucky mess.” A Lego tow truck snaps apart in another rescue attempt, making him a “click-brick, clingy stringy, blucky stucky mess!” When the bell rings, the glue’s dry, and dad must peel gluey Matty off the table. At home, he’s divested of his glue suit, and Dad puts a magnet on it and sticks it to the fridge. After dinner, the family explores the fun of duct tape. Despite the busy plot and superabundance of exclamation marks, Lefebvre’s debut never rises to the level of mayhem or fun it aspires to. The cumulative portion of the tale loses rhyme, rhythm and logic six pages before it ends. Retz’s Photoshop paintings are bright, wide-eyed and goofy, but they can’t add enough fun to compensate for the lackluster text.
Great gobs of glue should be more fun than this. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-9362612-7-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flashlight Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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