A delightful introduction to a beloved childhood game.
A childhood game brings confidence and an unlikely friend in this Korean import.
Eunji, who lives in Seoul, enters her classroom only to be greeted as “partner,” to her annoyance, by Jingu, her classmate from the countryside. Eunji borrowed her sister’s dress and, reaching into her pocket, is surprised to find gonggidols, small, colorful stones used to play the Korean game of gonggi. As with jacks, a player throws a stone in the air and must grab the others before catching the thrown stone; each time, the number of stones grabbed increases. Jingu is overjoyed at the discovery, revealing that gonggi is popular in his hometown of Gyeongsang-do. Impressed by his skills, the class plans a gonggi tournament while a jealous Eunji, who doesn’t know how to play, refuses to participate. But Eunji runs into Jingu on her way home, and they share a sweet dalgona. Jingu cleverly persuades Eunji to try gonggi with the enticement of more candy, and eventually she falls in love with the game. The day of competition arrives, and Eunji is slotted in the last pairing while Jingu is mysteriously absent—until the last minute. Bold cartoon illustrations effectively highlight the characters’ emotions amid textured backgrounds and bring the straightforward narrative to a satisfying—and epic—conclusion; readers will be eager to learn more about the game, and the backmatter obliges. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A delightful introduction to a beloved childhood game. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781612545820
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Brown Books Kids
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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