These twins make learning to read double the fun.
Adorable twin sisters Ling and Ting are as funny and fresh as ever in their third early reader.
In “The Garden,” the first of six short episodes, Ting plants some now-ubiquitous cupcakes, hoping to grow more. When Ling explains that only seeds will grow, Ting asks if beans are seeds. After Ling confirms that indeed beans are seeds, Ting amusingly responds, “Then next I will plant jelly beans.” The humor continues throughout the accessible text as the girls try to swing higher than trees, come up with an inventive plan to pick apples and discover that, as twins, they can read minds (it helps that Ting is “thinking nothing”). “Lucky Red Paint” reflects the girls’ Chinese heritage when they paint their toys red, because the color is considered lucky in China. Finally, “Not a Silly Story” is a clever—and definitely silly—story that recaps elements of the previous five narratives. Ling and Ting take turns telling a story featuring two rabbits, a cupcake tree, a lucky red toy and mind reading. In addition, this culminating story depicts printed, childlike text on lined paper that will be familiar to most school-aged children. Once again Ling and Ting are not exactly the same, as Lin’s vibrant, patterned gouache illustrations reflect their subtle and not-so subtle differences.
These twins make learning to read double the fun. (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-316-18402-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A very enjoyable read-aloud for would-be urban farmers and kids just needing a good laugh. (Picture book. 5-7)
Raising chickens has become a popular hobby in urban areas where some people have small backyards.
Winston and Sophie, younger brother and older sister, live in such a community. When their mother spots a sign offering five fowl of different breeds, they adopt chickens delightfully named Dawn, Divina, Daphne, Delilah, and Desirée. Sophie announces the news at show-and-tell, and Winston does the “Chicken Dance” on a crowded city bus, yelling “THE CHICKENS ARE COMING TOMORROW!” The siblings are ready to collect eggs, but there’s nary an egg in sight. The kids put on a play, provide music and stories, anything to “get them in the mood,” but nothing happens. They begin to interact with the chickens, learning their habits, a process depicted in eight circular vignettes on a double-page spread. When the children finally discover eggs, Sophie explains that different breeds lay eggs of varied colors and sizes. The brightly colored, amusingly detailed, naïve illustrations depict a white family, but there are diverse people at school, on the bus, on the street, and in their building. From “Sophie’s Chicken Chart” on the last page, readers can learn that Daphne, with her pouf of white feathers (Winston thinks it’s a hat) is a Polish breed chicken, actually from the Netherlands, and other facts. An author’s note provides resources on raising chickens.
A very enjoyable read-aloud for would-be urban farmers and kids just needing a good laugh. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30097-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
In its own simplistic, sexist way, a lighthearted bit of behavior modeling.
One morning the solitary Beast finds a big, egg-shaped surprise waiting on his doorstep.
“Please look after me” reads the taped-on note, and so Beast does—though nearly burying it in the garden, dropping it on the table, and letting it roll away down a mountain seems a rough-and-tumble sort of care. Fortunately, the resilient egg rolls right into a hospital, where Dr. Yoko, an “eggspert,” supplies the Beast with a checklist outlining a more responsible sort of care…and in due course, after much manual-reading and laying in of supplies, Beast has his world rocked by the arrival of little Baby Beast. Cue a new parenting-skills learning curve, but in no time Beast is deftly changing diapers, putting Baby Beast into a onesie, sharing a storybook, and tucking the hairy mini-me into bed. His reflection that sometimes “the biggest surprises are the best” then gets a punchline when, in the final scene, he finds two eggs on his doorstep. Beast makes a loving, model, enthusiastic single dad, but even younger readers are apt to wonder at his lack of curiosity about the egg’s origin, not to mention the total absence of mother Beast(s) in this scenario. Beast and Baby Beast are black, hairy haystacks with limbs, but along with lots of comfy domestic details, Judge tucks both light- and dark-skinned human figures into his simple cartoon illustrations.
In its own simplistic, sexist way, a lighthearted bit of behavior modeling. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5415-5512-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Andersen Press USA
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
