Nothing original here, but this is an amusing-enough way of looking at the issue of becoming your own person
Do George’s big, round ears bring in too many opinions from the people around him?
This pinkish cartoony figure of a boy with black hair and very large circular protuberances coming out of his head has a problem (but it’s not the fact that his ears knock things over). He can hear “things on the sly. // But the trouble with hearing each word that is said… / Well, soon the words started to fill George’s head.” George can’t make any decisions. He spends too much time trying to decide if he likes pink or blue (after hearing children arguing over stereotypical gender choices) or which games or toys or names are his favorites (this British import uses British spellings, “colours” and “favourites”). When he encounters children and adults in public (both with realistic skin tones and with green and purple faces too), the words all meld together into “BLAH, BLAH, BLAH,” written all over the background in visual cacophony. Finally, George decides just to listen to himself. He chooses pink as his favorite color, selects his favorite toy and game, and picks his own name as the best. He discovers that when he is himself, other people can appreciate him too. The appealing digital illustrations with their childlike images and strong background colors are humorous, but the rhyming story is reminiscent of many others about self-esteem.
Nothing original here, but this is an amusing-enough way of looking at the issue of becoming your own person . (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-84780-794-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors.
In this collaboration from mother/daughter duo Corrigan and Corrigan Lichty, a youngster longs to quit the soccer team so she can continue dreaming up more inventions.
Marianne, a snazzily dressed young maker with tan skin, polka-dot glasses, and reddish-brown hair in two buns, feels out of place on the pitch. Her soccer-loving dad signed her up for the team, but she’d much rather be home tinkering and creating. One day she feigns illness to get out of practice (relying on a trick she learned from the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and uses her newfound time to create a flying machine made from bath towels, umbrellas, cans, and more. Eventually, her dad catches wind of her deception, and she tells him she prefers inventing to playing soccer. Immediately supportive, he plops a pot on his head and becomes Marianne’s tinkering apprentice. Told in lilting rhymes, the story resolves its conflicts rather speedily (Marianne confesses to hating soccer in one swift line). Though the text is wordy at times, it’s quite jaunty, and adults (and retro-loving kids) will chuckle at the ’80s references, from the Ferris Bueller and Dirty Dancing movie posters in Marianne’s room to the name of her dog, Patrick Swayze. True to Marianne’s creative nature, Sweetland surrounds her with lots of clutter and scraps, as well as plenty of bits and bobs. One never knows where inspiration will strike next.
A thoughtful role model for aspiring inventors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593206096
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A straightforward, effective approach to helping children cope with one of life’s commonplace yet emotionally fraught...
A child struggles with the worry and anxiety that come with an unexpected problem.
In a wonderful balance of text and pictures, the team responsible for What Do You Do With an Idea (2014) returns with another book inspiring children to feel good about themselves. A child frets about a problem that won’t go away: “I wished it would just disappear. I tried everything I could to hide from it. I even found ways to disguise myself. But it still found me.” The spare, direct narrative is accompanied by soft gray illustrations in pencil and watercolor. The sepia-toned figure of the child is set apart from the background and surrounded by lots of white space, visually isolating the problem, which is depicted as a purple storm cloud looming overhead. Color is added bit by bit as the storm cloud grows and its color becomes more saturated. With a backpack and umbrella, the child tries to escape the problem while the storm swirls, awash with compass points scattered across the pages. The pages brighten into splashes of yellow as the child decides to tackle the problem head-on and finds that it holds promise for unlooked-for opportunity.
A straightforward, effective approach to helping children cope with one of life’s commonplace yet emotionally fraught situations, this belongs on the shelf alongside Molly Bang’s Sophie books. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-943-20000-9
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
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