A charming story about self-acceptance.
A girl who’s half-fairy, half-vampire struggles to fit in.
Isadora Moon’s parents can’t decide which school she should attend: fairy school like her mother or vampire school like her father? They opt to send her to a day of fairy school and a night of vampire school and then to let her choose. Pink and sparkly fairy school starts off as good fun but goes downhill with some magic mishaps (a wish for carrot cake summons an ever growing winged carrot) and cultural hiccups (despite the sparkles, they don’t approve of her black tutu in ballet, and she unknowingly desecrates a fairy ring). Vampire school doesn’t go much better—she flies too much like a fairy for vampire formations, her animated toy Pink Rabbit is banned after acting out in jealousy of the bats, and her straight but unruly hair doesn’t want be tamed to vampire standards. Despite her parents’ conflicting wishes that she take after one or the other, she fits into neither mold. After an encounter with a passing group of diverse human children (as opposed to the all–paper-white fantasy creatures), she opts to go to school with them and be an individual herself—a message as attractive as the black, white, and pink illustrations. While Isadora’s parents seem exceptionally clueless about what’s best for their daughter, their loving acceptance of her choice is affirming.
A charming story about self-acceptance. (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-55821-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The buoyant uplift seems a bit pre-packaged but spot-on nonetheless.
A monohued tally of positive character traits.
Purple is a “magic color,” affirm the authors (both actors, though Hart’s name recognition is nowhere near the level of Bell’s), and “purple people” are the sort who ask questions, laugh wholeheartedly, work hard, freely voice feelings and opinions, help those who might “lose” their own voices in the face of unkindness, and, in sum, can “JUST BE (the real) YOU.” Unlike the obsessive protagonist of Victoria Kann’s Pinkalicious franchise, being a purple person has “nothing to do with what you look like”—a point that Wiseman underscores with scenes of exuberantly posed cartoon figures (including versions of the authors) in casual North American attire but sporting a wide range of ages, skin hues, and body types. A crowded playground at the close (no social distancing here) displays all this wholesome behavior in action. Plenty of purple highlights, plus a plethora of broad smiles and wide-open mouths, crank up the visual energy—and if the earnest overall tone doesn’t snag the attention of young audiences, a grossly literal view of the young narrator and a grandparent “snot-out-our-nose laughing” should do the trick. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.4-by-20.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 22.2% of actual size.)
The buoyant uplift seems a bit pre-packaged but spot-on nonetheless. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12196-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
The grown-ups who buy this will already, like their offspring, have bought the message
The creators of A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo (2018) press another topical hot button.
Replete with twee Capital Letters, the tale sends Jitterbug the chipmunk skittering from her cozy nest in search of the Something New that her sensitive tummy tells her has come to the forest. Along the way she meets friends who share important thoughts she tucks away as irrelevant but “good information.” The Something turns out to be a Someone, namely slow-talking Pudding the snail, a refugee from the recently flooded garden over the hill. Prompted by fear of change, Jitterbug peremptorily orders Pudding to turn back. But when her less jittery animal neighbors gang up to point out that she’s being irrational, Jitterbug acknowledges her mistake. Back comes Pudding (who hadn’t gotten very far anyway) to make a new home and become a Very Good Friend. In splashy digital watercolors Keller adds at least some flavor to the precious narrative, placing animated forest creatures with mildly anthropomorphic postures and expressions into pleasant sylvan surroundings and strapping a backpack atop Pudding’s brightly striped shell. Jitterbug may judge the thought that “even though New can be scary, kindness is stronger than fear” to be “very good information,” but her change of heart at the shrink-wrapped climax comes with superficial ease.
The grown-ups who buy this will already, like their offspring, have bought the message . (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-293374-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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