by John Fardell & illustrated by John Fardell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2012
A very merry, lighthearted entanglement. (Picture book. 4-9)
A cumulative tale of gathering potency that riffs on Jonah and the Whale.
The first page of this tale is a dodge: A young boy with goo-goo eyes scooters off with his sister for a day in the forest near their idyllic woodland cottage. Yawn—apparently. The pen-and-ink drawing is pretty nifty, so it doesn’t hurt to move ahead anyway. And that is for the best, as goo-goo eyes gets eaten by a Gulper. His sister, taking umbrage, gives chase, but before she can reach the Gulper, it is eaten by a Grabular. So it goes, with the sister in pursuit—on evermore inventive contraptions—and each crazy creature being devoured by a yet crazier one. The sister gets the Saber-toothed Yumper in the end, forcing it to disgorge all its stomach’s contents, including the goo-goo–eyed brother, who turns out to be a tough dude after all. Things could be said here about the importance of persistence and the glories of sisters, all being true, but it might be best to see this book as a clever eye-catcher with a nicely tied-up story—there's nothing at all wrong with that.
A very merry, lighthearted entanglement. (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0315-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Andersen Press USA
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
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by Michelle Worthington ; illustrated by Joseph Cowman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2015
An invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way.
A young boy sees things a little differently than others.
Noah can see patterns in the dust when it sparkles in the sunlight. And if he puts his nose to the ground, he can smell the “green tang of the ants in the grass.” His most favorite thing of all, however, is to read. Noah has endless curiosity about how and why things work. Books open the door to those answers. But there is one question the books do not explain. When the wind comes whistling by, where does it go? Noah decides to find out. In a chase that has a slight element of danger—wind, after all, is unpredictable—Noah runs down streets, across bridges, near a highway, until the wind lifts him off his feet. Cowman’s gusty wisps show each stream of air turning a different jewel tone, swirling all around. The ribbons gently bring Noah home, setting him down under the same thinking tree where he began. Did it really happen? Worthington’s sensitive exploration leaves readers with their own set of questions and perhaps gratitude for all types of perspective. An author’s note mentions children on the autism spectrum but widens to include all who feel a little different.
An invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60554-356-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Redleaf Lane
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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by Megan McDonald & illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2012
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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by Megan McDonald ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
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