Delightful if a tad one-dimensional.
Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
Gregor, a little green monster who loves to run and shout and show off his horrendous strength by lifting heavy things, is bothered by a nagging, “nasty thought.” He looks in a mirror one day, seeing his big nose and “sticking-out ears,” and asks himself, “Am I handsome?” Mommy seems the perfect person to answer the question. “Of course,” she says. “I don’t know anyone who can squint as handsomely as you.” Daddy agrees, adding, “You’ve got the stinkiest, cheesiest feet in the whole world!” Daddy gleefully tosses him in the air, downing a small plane and a handful of birds. Granddad admires Gregor’s “rotten crooked” teeth; his neighbor loves his “mucky, yucky” warts; his little brother likes his “wibbly-wobbly” tummy; and Gregor’s best friend praises his gray, greasy, scaly, scabby skin. (Her magnifying glass reveals all sorts of wacky dermal life.) Gregor looks in the mirror again and remembers all of the things that his family and friends have told him. At length, he realizes: “It was true. He really was handsome!” Dully’s bright, digital illustrations are deliriously goofy, each a story in itself. They give Dax’s straightforward silliness, teeming with juicy adjectives, a nice lift. The story itself doesn’t plumb the depths, concentrating on skin-deep humor.
Delightful if a tad one-dimensional. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-76036-029-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Starfish Bay
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Appealing and interactive, kid-friendly spooky fun.
Readers are invited to help the Boo Crew save the Monster Ball on Halloween.
Luna, Bones, and Fang—respectively, a wispy, gray-tinged ghost; a skeleton in a top hat and scarf; and a brown-skinned vampire—are the Boo Crew, working to fix disasters, from a witch’s malfunctioning broom to some smashed pumpkins, in time for the Monster Ball. Each page asks readers to assist: There are switches to push, candles to blow out, and claps of encouragement to give. After readers lend a hand, helping all the spooky creatures and getting materials fixed and ready, the Monster Ball goes on as planned. The rhyming text and interactive requests make this a worthy lapsit read-aloud. The Boo Crew are darling and kid-friendly, as are all of the illustrations. There are lots of charming details—the witch’s ride is a high-tech gadget labeled the Vroom Broom 5000; Frankenstein's monster is the proprietor of a boutique called Frank’s Frocks. The big-eyed, sweet-faced creatures are adorable, not scary; a teeny-tiny frog tucked into an eye socket makes even a skull look cute. Like Hervé Tullet’s Press Here (2010), this one encourages readers to turn the book, press buttons, and applaud. These inclusions are popular for a reason: Kids love them. This title will be no exception. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Appealing and interactive, kid-friendly spooky fun. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728264561
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Neither terrible nor terribly interesting; Elivia Savadier’s No Haircut Today! (2005) is a more distilled treatment of the...
Visually energetic but unsophisticated, with pedestrian text, this may be selected more by parents hoping the humor will coax their kids into a haircut than by the kids themselves.
“Why, hello! This is Stewart. Stewart is a monster,” plods the opening. An arrow points to Stewart, whose hair is green, curly, wavy and wild. Skinny, curling tendrils of hair supplement bold black outlines; Barton’s mixture of thick and thin lines is the best part of her loose, freewheeling ink illustrations. Being a monster, Stewart “loves all the things that monsters love,” including spiders (for hair decoration and play) and helicopters (for eating). Stewart’s ever-lengthening hair is an obstacle. It blocks classmates' view of the (tolerably funny) school blackboard: “Tonight’s homework: find human homework and eat it!” Candy, crayons and keys disappear into the unruly green coiffure. Stewart’s parents believe it’s haircut time, but the decision is Stewart’s, and he resists. Not until his prowess at frightening others becomes compromised does Stewart fold, chopping the green locks down to a popular, spiky “scare-cut.” It’s fitting that inability to incite fear feels intolerable to a monster, but some adults will cringe at the fact that Stewart—previously confident—changes his hairstyle specifically because other characters laugh at him.
Neither terrible nor terribly interesting; Elivia Savadier’s No Haircut Today! (2005) is a more distilled treatment of the same subject. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: July 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3733-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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