With its heart on its sleeve, this offering falls short of other, better picture books that come out swinging against...
A heartfelt, albeit heavy-handed, treatise against bullying is delivered in plodding rhyming verse.
Co-authored by Lynch (who, as Sue Sylvester on television’s Glee, is a notorious bully), the rhyming text suffers under the weight of its earnest message and slim characterization. Why is Marlene so mean? Readers don’t ever find out—apart from an oblique reference to anger that motivates her random acts of cruelty. Other children cower in her wake, while adults who might step in are pointedly absent from words and pictures. Finally, Big Freddy, “his voice loud and steady,” intervenes to stop all the mean. He does so by simply asking Marlene why she is so mean and by pointing out to the others that she is not so scary after all. The children are emboldened by his actions, and they stand up to her too, refusing to flinch when she continues her tirade of bullying. In an odd narrative twist, she ends up sneezing out her meanness and deciding to reform, though the text eagerly points out that she doesn’t become an angel overnight. Tusa’s comical, lively, watercolor illustrations save the day in what would otherwise be a fairly forgettable addition to the anti-bullying bandwagon.
With its heart on its sleeve, this offering falls short of other, better picture books that come out swinging against bullying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-37908-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying.
A story-reading dragon—what’s not to like?
Duncan the Dragon loves to read. But the stories so excite him, his imagination catches fire—and so do his books, leaving him wondering about the endings. Does the captain save the ship? Do aliens conquer the Earth? Desperate to reach the all-important words “The End” (“like the last sip of a chocolate milk shake”), he tries reading in the refrigerator, in front of a bank of electric fans, and even in a bathtub filled with ice. Nothing works. He decides to ask a friend to read to him, but the raccoon, possum, and bull all refuse. Weeping, Duncan is ready to give up, but one of his draconic tears runs “split-splat into a mouse,” a book-loving mouse! Together they battle sea monsters, dodge icebergs, and discover new lands, giving rise to a fast friendship. Driscoll’s friendly illustrations are pencil sketches painted in Adobe Photoshop; she varies full-bleed paintings with vignettes surrounded by white space, imaginary scenes rendered in monochrome to set them apart. Duncan himself is green, winged, and scaly, but his snout is unthreateningly bovine, and he wears red sneakers with his shoelaces untied—a nicely vulnerable touch. Though there are lots of unusual friendship stories in picture books, the vivid colors, expressive faces, and comic details make this one likely to be a storytime hit.
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75507-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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A welcome addition to autumnal storytelling—and to tales of traditional enemies overcoming their history.
Ferry and the Fans portray a popular seasonal character’s unlikely friendship.
Initially, the protagonist is shown in his solitary world: “Scarecrow stands alone and scares / the fox and deer, / the mice and crows. / It’s all he does. It’s all he knows.” His presence is effective; the animals stay outside the fenced-in fields, but the omniscient narrator laments the character’s lack of friends or places to go. Everything changes when a baby crow falls nearby. Breaking his pole so he can bend, the scarecrow picks it up, placing the creature in the bib of his overalls while singing a lullaby. Both abandon natural tendencies until the crow learns to fly—and thus departs. The aabb rhyme scheme flows reasonably well, propelling the narrative through fall, winter, and spring, when the mature crow returns with a mate to build a nest in the overalls bib that once was his home. The Fan brothers capture the emotional tenor of the seasons and the main character in their panoramic pencil, ballpoint, and digital compositions. Particularly poignant is the close-up of the scarecrow’s burlap face, his stitched mouth and leaf-rimmed head conveying such sadness after his companion goes. Some adults may wonder why the scarecrow seems to have only partial agency, but children will be tuned into the problem, gratified by the resolution.
A welcome addition to autumnal storytelling—and to tales of traditional enemies overcoming their history. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-247576-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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BOOK REVIEW
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