A clever, if text-heavy, debut picture book with a bite.
In Finn’s debut picture book, an 8-year-old realizes that not brushing her teeth has led to a disastrous result: a tarnished smile.
Farrah Feeth is fabulous. She’s a tutu-wearing, tree-climbing, brownie-baking sort of girl who, until recently, hated brushing her teeth. When her mother tells her about the Sugar Bugs, an imaginative representation of plaque, Farrah is unimpressed. Her mother warns her that without tooth brushing, the Sugar Bugs will get her, especially if she eats junk food. When Farrah ignores her mother’s warnings, her mother says she’ll stop reminding Farrah to brush, so she’ll learn for herself. Unafraid of the consequences, Farrah forgoes brushing her teeth for three weeks. Nothing bad happens—until picture day at school. One look in the mirror and Farrah realizes that those three weeks of not brushing have made her fabulous smile frightful. After an imaginary conversation with a Sugar Bug (who looks like a yellow tooth dressed as a pirate, hook and eye patch included), Farrah is so embarrassed she refuses to open her mouth the rest of the school day. When she gets home, though, she rushes to brush her teeth. Farrah is a changed girl: She tells her mother, “I’m going to scrub them away every single day….I’ll open my mouth wide and use toothpaste with fluoride, and then I’m going to floss between each tooth every day and be a cavity super sleuth.” The text is lengthy, and Farrah’s fabulousness—or is it arrogance?—might rub readers the wrong way, but readers may enjoy watching her get taken down a notch and, after so much bragging in the opening, her learning a lesson. The watercolorlike illustrations from veteran illustrator Lemaire perfectly capture the tone of the story, although the image of the piratic tooth is used several times over, sometimes merely as an exact mirror image, with the hook and eye patch switching sides of his body. Farrah’s smile never looks quite as gross as the text implies, but the Sugar Bug is giggle-worthy, and Farrah’s embarrassed expressions are priceless.
A clever, if text-heavy, debut picture book with a bite.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0988818705
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Little Harbor Books
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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