A little boy adjusts to changes as his beloved grandmother ages and becomes infirm.
Oscar loves his grandma, and he loves the things they do together, like riding on their scooters and playing on the seesaw. When she “doesn’t feel like playing,” they find other ways to enjoy each other’s company. But now there are many things she can no longer do, and she must move to a place where she will be cared for. Oscar, his dad and his younger sibling visit Grandma, meeting her caregivers and other residents. Sometimes Grandma shouts and gets angry when she cannot remember things, but other times she tells Oscar stories about her life. The sweet, squiggly pictures show that Grandma visited Paris, went camping and jumped out of an airplane (with a parachute but without a helmet). Oscar is clear about how the changes in Grandma upset him, but he says that friends and family take care of him and make him feel better. Notes at the end give more details about dementia. Oscar’s voice is naïve and prone to inexactitude, and the tale overall is very purposive, clearly created to help other children in Oscar’s situation. Though it lacks the artistry of Mem Fox and Julie Viva’s Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge (1989), it has a useful charm. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84643-602-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
Would that all sib relationships were so harmonious
Four more emergent-reader episodes featuring little Annie, her “big, big brother,” Simon, and bucketloads of sibling togetherness.
O’Neill opens with a thematic link to Annie and Simon (2008). Simon (still) has trouble telling Annie’s drawings of a crayfish and a dragonfly apart but answers her skeptical response to his claim that frogs have knees (“Oh, Simon. Tee-hee. Tee-hee. Tee-hee-hee”) with nature facts until she admiringly asks him if he knows everything. “Well,” says Simon, “I hate to brag.” In subsequent episodes, Simon’s sneeze unleashes a patiently borne flood of little-sister TLC; Annie’s efforts to get her dog Hazel to purr end abruptly when she sees the neighbor’s cat stroll by with a mouse in his mouth; and the sudden disappearance of a wagonload of horse chestnuts left on the porch sparks a bit of detective work. In the author’s informal, loosely brushed watercolors, the gangly figures fit comfortably in outdoorsy suburban and cozy domestic settings. Their mutual attachment is clearly expressed in gestures, expressions, eye contact and, in the final scene, a tender smooch on the head by Simon: “You know,” he says, “you’re my favorite little sister.” “I know,” says Annie.
Would that all sib relationships were so harmonious . (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4921-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
New readers will eat this up.
This charmer of an early reader presents an ironic twist on the tried-and-true picky-eater character by casting him as a pig.
Mom has prepared a treat for her four piglets: green slop. Dot, Rose and Gus dig in and head outside to play, but as the title heralds, “Pete won’t eat.” A battle of wills ensues between Mom and Pete as she insists that he try the slop, but he refuses. “You will stay until you eat,” Mom declares, but then the facing page shows her ambivalence about the hard line she’s holding as she sits at her home computer and says forlornly, “I hope he tries it.” Alas, Pete is one stubborn little pig, and spot illustrations show him determinedly refusing to eat even as his siblings and friends implore him to do so and come out to play. Meanwhile, Mom second guesses herself to the point of tears. “I am a mean mom!” she exclaims in a bit of text that is both humorous and wonderfully humanizing for the maternal sow. When she offers to make Pete a sandwich, he caves and eats up his slop with gusto, proving that the standoff was about power more than it was the slop itself. Throughout, McCully’s watercolors are comically expressive and engaging.
New readers will eat this up. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2853-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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