A short and amusing travel-themed chapter book for young readers looking for pure entertainment.
A family of five gray Smurf-like creatures take a trip across fictional international borders in this read-aloud chapter book.
Back after their debut adventure in The Grod Family’s Christmas Lights (2022), the Grods are ready to go on a road trip. Their destination? The Land of the UltraSuper KiddyKarnival (USKK). From their home in the Far-Off Territory of the North, Mama and Papa Grod, Little Gordie, Sister, and Tommie take 6 days to reach their destination in their truck camper, Ol’ Big Bluester. They see all manner of wildlife as they travel southward and stop at the famous McNeil’s Eatery & Munchery chain before crossing over the border to the USKK: “Each morning after breakfast, the Grods would walk over to the USKK, little Gordie Grod in his stroller, and they would see the sights.” They spend their days going on rides and swimming at the motel pool before it’s time to journey back home. Their return voyage takes them through places like FlowerPowerTown, where they meet other creatures of their Unarainian heritage, and to meetings with big personalities like hitchhiker Martin de l’Heôtel. Yakimow’s meandering tale is a lively jaunt that’s light on plot. The comedic cast of characters work together to create a cohesive vision of a silly but heartfelt world that will still sometimes challenge readers’ suspension of disbelief when the veil grows thin between the “USKK” and the United States (complete with a Donald Trump–faced space creature), the “Far-Off Territory of the North” and Canada, and even “Unarainia” and Ukraine. Schultz’s artwork for this short chapter book is reminiscent of the Smurfs in terms of its indeterminate creatures, bright colors, and comic details.
A short and amusing travel-themed chapter book for young readers looking for pure entertainment.Pub Date: May 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781038336705
Page Count: 84
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tongue-in-cheek bildungsroman about celebrating differences and the underrated superpowers of gentleness and sweetness.
Kaijus—giant Godzilla-like creatures—are supposed to have fearsome powers like atomic breath, the ability to summon storms, and magnetism—but not young Anzu.
Instead, he was born with the power of finding “beauty in small things.” Finally old enough to be assigned his own personal city to terrorize, Anzu hopes to impress his fond parents. But instead of inflicting fiery destruction on the tiny kodamalike residents at his feet, the best he can do is rain garlands of flowers down on them. He tries to wreak havoc by uprooting a tree but instead ends up creating a peaceful playground of blossoming animal topiaries. “I’ll never strike fear,” Anzu frets. “Am I even a kaiju?” Young readers may well share his doubts since, despite towering over the city of lumpy buildings made from low mounds of dirt, he and his family look more like cute, plump stuffies than scary reptilian beasts. When Anzu does at last manage a little devastation, his feeling of triumph is short-lived—and so, to restore joy and laughter, he exerts his special flower powers with surprising, and satisfying, results. The text is engaging and heartwarming without being cloying. The bright, colorful illustrations are rendered in watercolor and ink. Full-bleed artwork is interspersed with panels, which, along with the use of narrative boxes, lend a graphic feel to the presentation.
A tongue-in-cheek bildungsroman about celebrating differences and the underrated superpowers of gentleness and sweetness. (Graphic picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-77612-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
The premise is worn gossamer thin, and the joke stopped being funny, if it ever was, long ago.
A fairy tending their garden manages to survive a gaggle of young intruders.
In halting cadences typical of the long-running—and increasingly less amusing—How To Catch… series, the startled mite—never seen face-on in Elkerton’s candy-colored pictures and indeterminate of gender—wonders about the racially diverse interlopers: “Do they know that I can grant wishes? / Or that a new fairy is born when they giggle?” The visual action rather belies the sweetness of the verses, the palette, the bright flowers, and the multicolored resident zebras and unicorns, as after repeated, elaborately designed efforts to trap or even shoot (with a peashooter) the fairy come to naught, the laughing children are escorted out of the garden beneath a rising moon. The encounter ends on a (perhaps unconsciously) ominous note. “Hope they find their way back sometime,” the butterfly-winged narrator concludes. “And just maybe next time they’ll stay!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The premise is worn gossamer thin, and the joke stopped being funny, if it ever was, long ago. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728263205
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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