Readers unfamiliar with the TV series may be left scratching their heads, and even for those who are fans, Tiny’s dilemma...
A British stop-motion animated series makes the jump across the pond to print.
The TV series, originally broadcast from 1969 to 1972, was resurrected in 2015. The mouselike Clangers live on a planet in outer space also inhabited by mother and baby Soup Dragons and egg-shaped froglets and overseen by Iron Chicken, an amalgamation of washers, nuts, bolts, and other metal parts. (Readers may be reminded of Fraggle Rock.) The Clangers themselves are pink knit creations differentiated by size and by vest and hair color. In this tale, the youngest Clanger, Tiny, “dons her radio hat and makes her nightly bedtime call to Iron Chicken,” asking for her lullaby. (The iron hat looks like a parody of paranoiac headgear.) But something is wrong with the hat tonight, and Tiny can’t sleep without her lullaby. What follows is her attempt to get someone to sing to her, though the quest goes on far too long and inconsistencies crop up—brother Small was asleep but then suddenly is not. In the end, the froglets, Baby Soup Dragon, and Small all convince Tiny that she should sing to them, and the lullaby works like a charm on them all, Tiny included.
Readers unfamiliar with the TV series may be left scratching their heads, and even for those who are fans, Tiny’s dilemma feels overlong. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-54144-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
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BOOK REVIEW
A humorous rhyming romp in which the usual fairy-tale villains are friends. (Picture book. 3-6)
Alice, the princess in the palace, loves her blankie, but it’s missing, so the search is on.
Her brother, Jack, used it as a curtain until a giant stole it to use as a hankie, until a witch flew off with it and made a cloak from it, until it was taken by…a cranky-looking dragon who happens to be snoring on it when Alice finds them. Alice is cranky herself but halts a brief blankie tug of war for a better solution: finding the dragon his own bedtime snuggly. It’s not easy. The dragon grows increasingly weepy, but he won’t snuggle with the witch’s “far too scratchy” cat, the giant’s feather pillow (it makes him sneeze), or Jack’s stinky socks. What can Alice do? A thorough search of the palace finally yields the dragon’s perfect snuggly and earns Alice a lifelong friend and protector. Muted mixed-media cartoon illustrations create rich backstories for each character combined with a sophisticated, smoothly reading rhyme scheme to produce a fast-moving friendship story that problem-solving young children will appreciate. Princess Alice, Prince Jack, and the giant present as dark-haired white characters.
A humorous rhyming romp in which the usual fairy-tale villains are friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0819-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deterministic message detracts from the math.
For 10 flower friends, the grass is always greener…in the sky.
Ten Fantasia-like flowers with adorable faces and leaf arms/hands love being together and basking in the sun, but they also can’t help wanting to break free of their roots and fly when they see the fairies flitting about in the moonlight. One night, “Said the tiny blue one, / ‘Fairy up in the sky, / you see, I’m a flower, / but I want to fly.’ ” While the fairy is puzzled at the flower’s discontent, she grants its wish and transforms it into a butterfly. One by one the others join their mate in the sky as butterflies, each one’s color reflecting its flower origin. At daybreak, though, the new butterflies regret the transformation, and the understanding fairy changes them back again: “But big and tall, / or short and small, / being ourselves / is best of all!” Really? There isn’t even one flower that would really rather fly all the time? Throughout, McKellar emphasizes that there are always 10 in all, though some may be flowers and some butterflies at any given point. The endpapers reinforce ways to make 10 by showing 11 combinations, all in two rows of five, which may confuse children, rather than always keeping butterflies separate from flowers and allowing one row to be longer than the other. The bright colors, butterflies, flowers, and the fairy, who is a dark-skinned pixie with long black hair, seem calibrated to attract girly audiences.
A deterministic message detracts from the math. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-93382-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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