by Jarrett Lerner ; illustrated by Serge Seidlitz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 22, 2020
Welcome, Geeger!
The first day of school can be scary even if you’re a robot!
Geeger is a robot constructed to eat everything humans don’t want to, like moldy mac and cheese and rotten eggs. Then at night he connects to the DIGEST-O-TRON 5000, which turns that refuse into electricity to power the town of Amblerville. But Geeger is lonely, so he decides to go to school, where he will surely make a friend. He is so nervous about his first day he accidentally eats his backpack. On his way to school he meets Tillie, who likes to jump-rope. Ms. Bork introduces him to the class, and Tillie’s thumbs-up helps to put them at ease as he introduces himself…but then he makes a mistake and eats the class globe (it looks so much like moldy fruit). It is hard for him to overcome his mechanical brain’s order to “EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!” Fortunately, Ms. Bork doesn’t get too angry, and recess is fun! This agreeably silly robot tale kicks off a new series of very early chapter books. Ample illustrations that frequently and humorously extend the text, large type (set in boldface for new vocabulary words), a glossary, and comprehension questions make this a solid choice for fledgling chapter-book readers. Elementary-age children will identify with Geeger’s nervousness, his fear of making a mistake, and his impulse control even as they laugh at his antics. Line drawings depict humans with paper-white skin, but names suggest diversity among Geeger’s human classmates.
Welcome, Geeger! (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5217-6
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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by Maribeth Boelts ; illustrated by Noah Z. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023
A much-needed reminder that kindness will always win out.
Teachers influence children profoundly.
From earliest childhood, Lila Greer, the youngest of five in a single-dad household, has been a worrier. Then the family moves. Entering second grade feels overwhelming: Nothing’s familiar, and she has no friends. But Ms. Kern, Lila’s new teacher, invites Lila to erase the chalkboard at recess and to articulate her fears. It helps that someone listens. Soon, classmates get into the act, and lonely Lila makes friends, emerges from her shell, and learns that “what ifs” have positive sides. Lila grows up, still fretting sometimes, and then becomes a new teacher who worries upon meeting her own students. But then she remembers the teacher who helped her overcome her fears and doubts years earlier. What was that marvelous, ineffable quality Ms. Kern possessed? Then Lila remembers: It was kindness! Harnessing that memory, Lila now welcomes her own “smiling young faces.” This is a sweet story that emphasizes good cheer, helpfulness, and the importance of feeling welcome and heard, no matter who you are: terrific messages, expressed in bouncy verses that scan well. The illustrations are colorfully lively. Readers will appreciate occasional displays of humorous and quirky typesetting creativity and will admire Lila’s poufy topknot, which resembles a huge ball of yarn. Lila is light-skinned, Ms. Kern is tan-skinned, and other characters are diverse.
A much-needed reminder that kindness will always win out. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781419769047
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Andrea Beaty ; illustrated by David Roberts
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