A kids’-book celebration of living-room adventures featuring uncomplicated illustrations.
Three young boys reach the peak of an imaginary adventure in Timmerman’s debut picture book.
As the book opens, Jack and his friends, Ethan and Owen, are scaling Mount Everest. While gathering their gear, they hear that a big storm is on the way and they’ll only have one chance to reach the summit. While crossing a crevasse with a wobbly ladder, Jack stumbles, but a sherpa rescues him in the nick of time. The rest of the climb is a success, and the boys cheer when they reach the summit—but they soon realize that their noise may have caused an avalanche. Luckily, the whole adventure is shown to be a celebration of make-believe: the three boys have actually conquered living-room furniture in homemade climbing gear. Timmerman describes real mountain climbing equipment while giving the characters a healthy sense of adventure and courage. Nehl’s illustrations and Timmerman’s text show the boys to be young but of indeterminate age; only the back cover text notes that Jack’s age is 4 years old. The images are understated, with simple backgrounds and muted colors, and they give the work a chapter-book feel, despite its length. The final page, on which the boys are sad that Jack’s mother may break up their game, is a letdown after the triumphant game of pretend. However, despite their expressions, the boys are clearly not the type to be kept down for long. Children will identify with the characters’ imaginative play and possibly save some of their ideas for later. Lap readers and newly independent readers will find some challenging vocabulary here (“summit,” “Sherpa,” “crevasse”), and the book would have been better served by having a glossary. However, the introduction of mountain-climbing concepts, especially in the safe context of piles of pillows and a sheet tent, may encourage young readers to check out books about real-life Mount Everest expeditions.
A kids’-book celebration of living-room adventures featuring uncomplicated illustrations.Pub Date: July 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500122836
Page Count: 30
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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