Sweet tales, if not quite scientifically rigorous or, for that matter, quite finished off.
Two curious mice set out to find out what happens to the moon during the day in this Japanese import.
Declaring that the moon must really like them since it follows them around, Chuchu and Chichi decide to find out where it goes when the sun comes up. What at first looks like the object of their search turns out to be a balloon stuck in a tree. Then a glimpse of yellow prompts them to creep into a house and nibble on an unidentifiable “moon-fruit” (presumably a lemon, because it “was very tart!”) and to check out a small bell—which turns out to be connected to the collar of a very large and irate cat! Scurrying back out the window and into the tree, the two mice bite through the balloon’s string and escape into the sky…where they are last seen floating through the nighttime sky and hailing the bright moon. The co-published Can We Go to the Sea? is similarly open-ended, as Chuchu and Chichi are left traveling on the back of a leaping dolphin after floating down a stream and over a waterfall. Like the “moon-fruit,” Kobayashi’s versions of the moon, the balloon, the cat, and for that matter “Ms. Dolphin” don’t look particularly lifelike, but the mice, sporting big pink ears and baggy shorts, are cute, and their dramatic brushes with death at least help to counter the general blandness of the art and the storylines.
Sweet tales, if not quite scientifically rigorous or, for that matter, quite finished off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-57565-970-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: StarBerry Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
An effective early chapter book conveyed in a slightly overdone gag.
Epistolary dispatches from the eternal canine/feline feud.
Simon the cat is angry. He had done a good job taking care of his boy, Andy, but now that Andy’s parents are divorced, a dog named Baxter has moved into Andy’s dad’s house. Simon believes that there isn’t enough room in Andy’s life for two furry friends, so he uses the power of the pen to get Baxter to move out. Inventively for the early-chapter-book format, the story is told in letters written back and forth; Simon’s are impeccably spelled on personalized stationery while Baxter’s spelling slowly improves through the letters he scrawls on scraps of paper. A few other animals make appearances—a puffy-lipped goldfish who for some reason punctuates her letter with “Blub…blub…” seems to be the only female character (cued through stereotypical use of eyelashes and red lipstick), and a mustachioed snail ferries the mail to and fro. White-appearing Andy is seen playing with both animals as a visual background to the text, as is his friend Noah (a dark-skinned child who perhaps should not be nicknamed “N Man”). Cat lovers will appreciate Simon’s prickliness while dog aficionados will likely enjoy Baxter’s obtuse enthusiasm, and all readers will learn about the time and patience it takes to overcome conflict and jealousy with someone you dislike.
An effective early chapter book conveyed in a slightly overdone gag. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4492-2
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so...
A pro bono Twinkie of a book invites readers to fly off in a magic plane to bring clean water to our planet’s oceans, deserts, and brown children.
Following a confusingly phrased suggestion beneath a soft-focus world map to “touch the Earth. Now touch where you live,” a shake of the volume transforms it into a plane with eyes and feathered wings that flies with the press of a flat, gray “button” painted onto the page. Pressing like buttons along the journey releases a gush of fresh water from the ground—and later, illogically, provides a filtration device that changes water “from yucky to clean”—for thirsty groups of smiling, brown-skinned people. At other stops, a tap on the button will “help irrigate the desert,” and touching floating bottles and other debris in the ocean supposedly makes it all disappear so the fish can return. The 20 children Coh places on a globe toward the end are varied of skin tone, but three of the four young saviors she plants in the flier’s cockpit as audience stand-ins are white. The closing poem isn’t so openly parochial, though it seldom rises above vague feel-good sentiments: “Love the Earth, the moon and sun. / All the children can be one.”
“It’s time to head back home,” the narrator concludes. “You’ve touched the Earth in so many ways.” Who knew it would be so easy to clean the place up and give everyone a drink? (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2083-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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