It means well, but there are better books about the power of words.
A girl collects words for the fun of it.
Inspired by her teacher, accompanied by her dog, and carrying a pink attaché case, Delores Thesaurus, who wears glasses and has braces on her teeth, searches for big words to add to her ever burgeoning stock. Tantalizing gems arise on signs and in overheard conversations, and these Delores eagerly writes down and stashes in her case. When a pelican flies off with the attaché case, Delores frantically pursues it, to no avail. Equally useless are Delores’ efforts to enlist help from various passers-by: Articulating some of her big words—incorrectly—to explain her plight, she fails to convey her desperation to seemingly uninterested bystanders. A kindly shopkeeper, a woman of color, finally steps in, gently helping the little white girl understand she had confused everyone with her inaccurate language and clarifying this point by defining the words. She hands Delores a dictionary, prompting the girl to adopt a new nickname. This overlong narrative, expressed in very clunky verse that often scans poorly, may try kids’ patience. The illustrations are colorful if static and incorporate some exciting words used in the text in addition to other interesting vocabulary; readers will enjoy poring over these in the drawings. The book also makes a subtle, welcome point by putting a woman of color in the position of linguistic expert.
It means well, but there are better books about the power of words. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1463-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names...
A lad finds a big red dragon in his basement and wisely seeks expert advice about its care and feeding in this epistolary episode.
Young Alexander’s missives (there are no cellphones, nor parents, in sight) are mostly paraphrased rather than shown, but each response comes as a small note folded into a pocket that’s been printed and shaped like an envelope: “Douse it in water right away!” writes panic-stricken fire chief H.Y. Drant; find it a large house or castle, advises B. East of World Animal Welfare; “fatten it up,” suggests Angus Teak the butcher (“Look forward to [eating, scratched out] meeting your dragon”) with sinister relish. Boy and dragon have wonderful times together, but the ultimate realization that dragons really don’t make good pets leads the narrator to follow the written advice of best friend Hillary (“the wisest person I knew”) and set it free. The later arrival of a slightly burned picture postcard in the “post” reassures him that the dragon won’t be forgetting to keep in touch. The human figures in Yarlett’s cartoon illustrations are either white or have their heads cut off at the page top. With the exception of the pasted-on postcard from the dragon at the end, all of the correspondence is removable and thereby losable.
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names add some appeal. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-818-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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