An entertaining romp through the mind of a child who refuses to settle for boring.
In this graphic-novel–style picture book, Fred seeks to add excitement to a boring “robot” teacher’s school day.
Fred’s bedroom wall is plastered with drawings of robots, dinosaurs, and planets; the rug is covered with toy dinosaurs, and a model robot made of recycled materials sits on the floor. At the kitchen table, Fred’s mom, dressed for the office, says goodbye as Fred’s eyes roll. Fred looks warily at Mr. Bailey after being dropped off at school by Dad, who pushes Fred’s baby sibling in a stroller. “Class is SO boring. Everything Mr. Bailey says is robot talk!” While the other students work out their math problems, Fred spots a spider. On the next spread, the spider is shown as the size of the classroom, and Fred leads the class in excited spider talk. At recess, Fred and friends run around as superheroes, battling mud monsters. Thus also pass history and lunch, with the illustrated school scenes seamlessly representing the world of Fred’s imagination even as Fred complains about Mr. Bailey’s lack thereof. The day’s climax is a test—creative writing becomes a wordless spread filled with robots, swords, characters in medieval garb, dinosaurs, and unicorns. The vivid illustrations feature strong lines with the look of carefully colored marker-style shading in bright hues. The classroom is racially diverse; Fred is white, the teacher is black. A child named Miriam appears to be gender nonconforming, and another uses arm braces.
An entertaining romp through the mind of a child who refuses to settle for boring. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-553-53451-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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