If shared one on one as a jumping-off point for discussion, some Asperger children may find this effort amusing, but it’s a...
In this Australian import, Kevin, a grade schooler with Asperger Syndrome takes the world too literally, a problem depicted in brief language and simple illustrations.
Kevin, like everyone in this effort, looks a lot like a soup can with arms and legs—not particularly attractive. Each spread presents a statement summarizing his view of the world: “Kevin thinks that shopping centres are too bright, too noisy and boring.” On many pages a second sentence offers an often ironic comment that contrasts sharply with the boy’s point-of-view: “—but he can always find something to do there.” The accompanying illustration shows Kevin obliviously hidden under a rack of clothing watching television while a store worker reassures his panicked mother and a police officer takes a missing-child report. Another page reports that Kevin believes he isn’t very good at dancing. It shows the rest of his class partnered up, but Kevin has his finger up his nose, leaving his partner and teacher clearly repulsed. If this effort is aimed at children with Asperger, they may find some depictions offensive. If other children are the intended audience, there’s a risk of fostering more bullying and mockery.
If shared one on one as a jumping-off point for discussion, some Asperger children may find this effort amusing, but it’s a poor choice otherwise . (foreword) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84905-292-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.
The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
A serene, feel-good outing with a cozy, old-fashioned feel.
In this Japanese import, the first in a long-running series to appear in English, two girls ride bikes through a forest—with stops for clover-blossom tea and jam sandwiches.
It’s such a benign wood that Chirri and Chirra—depicted as a prim pair of identical twins with straight bob cuts—think nothing of sharing both a lunch spot and a nap beneath a tree with a bear and a rabbit. Moreover, at convenient spots along the way there is a forest cafe with a fox waiter plus “tables and chairs of all different size” to accommodate the diverse forest clientele, a bakery offering “bread in all different shapes and jam in all different colors,” and, just as the sun goes down, a forest hotel with similarly diverse keys and doors. That night a forest concert draws the girls and the hotel’s animal guests to their balconies to join in: “La-la-la, La-la-la. What a wonderful night in the forest!” Despite heavy doses of cute, the episode is saved from utter sappiness by the inclusive spirit of the forest stops and the delightfully unforced way that the girls offer greetings to a pair of honeybees at a tiny adjacent table in the cafe, show no anxiety at the spider dangling above their napping place, and generally accept their harmonious sylvan world as a safe and friendly place. Doi creates her illustrations with colored pencil, pastel, and crayon, crafting them to look like mid-20th-century lithographs.
A serene, feel-good outing with a cozy, old-fashioned feel. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59270-199-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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