Made possible through a Kickstarter that funded 200% of the goal, this wonderfully illustrated book is a great way to get...
Author Scofield and Illustrator Dors introduce Jackie, a friendly looking, kid-shaped girl who celebrates her body for its usefulness and sensation—without ever looking or feeling objectified—in this poetry collection about the parts of the body.
“No one on earth has a body like mine. / It’s unique and rare and one of a kind,” Jackie announces. Her earnest love for her body and its uses—and her acceptance of all bodies as different and special—should welcome readers of all shapes and sizes from the first page. She follows that thought with an ode to her toes (which she can use for balancing or for drawing), her feet (which can feel the grass tickle or kick a ball), her ankles and knees, and on up the body. Each short poem (either one stanza or two) is accompanied by a crayon-drawn illustration of brown-haired, orange-and-yellow–dressed Jackie, whose interests include ballet, swimming, playing with her dog, archery, and practicing piano, among other things. The illustrations emphasize that girls can have many hobbies and skills, and they can enjoy both activewear and dressing up. The poems, some stronger than others, offer readers a way to appreciate the functions of each body part. In heart bubbles (also in yellow and orange), readers are asked questions about each body part: “How fast can your legs run?” or “Can you feel your heart beating in your chest?” To accommodate the placement of the questions, some of the stanzas feature broken lines, which may throw readers out of the rhythm of the poetry. Some rhymes are also a stretch: “chest / breath,” “me / feet,” etc. Still, the overall effect of the book—encouraging children to love and be comfortable in their own bodies—shines through.
Made possible through a Kickstarter that funded 200% of the goal, this wonderfully illustrated book is a great way to get young readers talking—and thinking—about their bodies in a positive way.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Field of Dors
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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