Tailor Schmuel learned to make time useful, to work and not stop “until that old clock says so!” Consequently, Schmuel refuses to take time to understand a young girl’s request for a special white-and-blue dress with “a little red heart.” Days lead into months and years. Schmuel, now 41, laments his missed opportunity, but the clock on the wall urges him, “Tockety-tick tock! / I give you all the time you need! / Tickety-tock tick! / Just do it and you’ll be happy!” and turns time back, allowing him to create the dress, reverse his lonely fate and wed his beautifully dressed bride. GrandPré’s double-page spreads feature honey-gold and twilight-blue and -purple hues in combined gouache-and-fabric collage art and artfully depict a boy’s progression from child to man. Brown’s tale unfolds in an irregular poetic format with an uneven rhyme that guides the oral reader along. However enjoyable it sounds aloud, however, its message—of the value of second chances and stopping to live life in the now—seems aimed more at adults than children. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-078752-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Laura Geringer/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
A rhyming seek and find makes this book a sure bet for a cozy read-aloud. On the right-hand side, Collicott’s (Toestomper and the Caterpillars, 1999, etc.) animal witches fill the page, each unique and with its own witchy hat. They are hard at work, acting, eating, sewing, playing . . . and making trouble. On the left-hand page, Barrett (I Knew Two Who Said Moo, 2000, etc.) presents a mystery—“Which witch is learning to stitch?” and four rhyming questions to help the reader pinpoint the correct witch in the illustration—“Is it the one wearing socks? / Is it the one eating lox?” While in many cases it is obvious which witch it is, the questions give the reader other details to look for in the pictures. And a good thing, too, since many of the activities will be unknown to children on the first reading. The text has the added bonus of highlighting all the rhyming words in colorful fonts, as well as introducing new ones—lean, glum, smug, lox, and nook, among others. Children will delight in the detailed drawings—new things will appear with each reading, and with the text as a model, they will get better and better at describing what they see. A clever and fun book that will have kids learning without even knowing it. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82940-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The food-loving computer and multispecies crew of pirate ship Sleepy Sheep land on planet Pancayke in search of hidden treasure. As in Space Pirates (2004), the quest takes them into a variety of mazes, which they navigate by following step-by-step instructions that will painlessly impart map-reading skills to the readers who follow along. Flanked by cartoon panels, the illustrations are done in a Where’s Waldo? style, thick with twisting passageways, humorous tiny details and heavy crowds. Locales range from the Sheepshovel Shopping Mall to the Spyderspit Sewers, and the crew suffers a nonstop series of disasters and narrow escapes as it makes its way at last to the treasure cave of Jellybrik, the green monster of Malswomp. Triumphing despite the best efforts of rival pirate Silverina Slyce, the Sleepy Sheepers jet off at last with a new treasure map in hand—leaving their audience a bit more practiced in finding compass points and following specific directions. The didactic purpose is well-disguised, though, beneath a barrage of silly names and cliffhangers. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-84507-480-7
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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