Lackluster text, muddy message, poor character development: not cool
Pete the Cat tries to find an inclusive activity for the “new guy” in town.
Pete and his pals are jamming when the “new guy” moves in next door: It’s Gus the platypus, who sports a backward baseball cap and a goofy smile. Professing eagerness to make a new friend (as always, it’s hard to tell from his heavy-lidded, couldn’t-care-less expression), Pete acknowledges Gus’ physiological peculiarities by assuring him that “I think being different is really very cool.” But how to include Gus? He can’t climb like Squirrel, jump like Toad or juggle like Octopus. Despite Pete’s encouraging if vague refrain—“Don’t be sad, / don’t be blue. / There is something / everyone can do!”—Gus, despondent, retreats to his house and consoles himself with his drum set. Pete exclaims, “He found something cool he can do with us!” The text is cast in a loose, poorly metered rhyme that dissolves into prose and then reforms with no apparent pattern. The message of inclusiveness is likewise incompletely explored. Why doesn’t Pete ever just ask Gus what he likes to do instead of flailing about aimlessly? For that matter, why don’t the Deans give Gus a personality? For all Pete’s stated embrace of “being different,” there is no attempt to develop or celebrate Gus’ difference in any meaningful way.
Lackluster text, muddy message, poor character development: not cool . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-227560-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Affirming and welcome.
A picture-book celebration of individuality and diversity.
Heling and Hembrook’s text opens with the lines, “In all the world over, / this much is true: / You’re somebody special. / There’s only one you.” The art depicts a white-appearing child with red pigtails, first on the floor, drawing, beside a big dog, then getting dressed as the dog sits on the bed and a woman, also white, peeks in. The next scene depicted in the digital, cartoon-style art shows the child hugging the woman and about to get on a school bus with a gaggle of diverse children with varying skin tones, hair textures and colors, and visible disabilities (one child wears a hearing aid, another wears glasses, a third uses a forearm crutch, and a fourth uses a wheelchair). As the rhyming text continues, it celebrates the diversity of these children not just in terms of their identities, but by commenting on their personalities, their talents, and ultimately their families. At book’s end, the first child is revealed to have two moms when they both pick her up at the end of the school day, the family dog in tow. “Families are families, / but soon you will find / that each can be different— / a ‘best for them’ kind,” reads the accompanying, inclusive text.
Affirming and welcome. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2292-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming and spirited.
Dynamic visual design distinguishes this tale of sibling conflict in an immigrant family.
Running home from school, Rubina tells Ami (mom) the thrilling news of a birthday-party invitation. This concept’s new to Ami, but the real problem is younger sister Sana, who demands to attend as well. Ami agrees. Pouting all the way, Rubina takes Sana, who not only disrupts the games but eats both her own and Rubina’s big red lollipop party favor. Blackall’s peppy watercolor-and-pencil illustrations hum with vibrancy and a wonderful sense of children in constant motion. Every page shows fresh composition and scale. When the justifiably resentful Rubina chases Sana around the house, the pair of wee figures shows up eight times on that spread, racing from spot to spot like Hilary Knight’s Eloise. Then Sana receives an invitation herself and Ami almost makes her take even-younger sister Maryam along—but Rubina’s intervention prevents that, and Sana brings Rubina a big green lollipop in gratitude. They’re friends now, though it’s unknown whether the invitations that Rubina stopped receiving due to Sana’s antics ever recommence.
Charming and spirited. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-670-06287-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2010
© 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.
