An unsuspecting student falls victim to the Math Curse when her teacher notes that ``You can think of almost everything as a math problem.'' Suddenly, everything is: ``I wake up at 7:15. It takes me 10 minutes to get dressed, 15 minutes to eat my breakfast, and 1 minute to brush my teeth . . . if my bus leaves at 8:00, will I make it on time?'' If it's not a time problem, it's equivalents (``How many inches in a foot?''), multiplication, nondecimal numbers, money combinations, and more. What's the cure? It comes to her in a dream: A problem with an answer is no problem at all. Smith's big paintings-cum-collage are, as usual, way strange, perfectly complementing the wild, postmodern page design with concatenations of small objects, fragments, and geometric shapes and figures, all placed on dark, grainy backgrounds. Another calculated triumph from the fevered brows that brought forth The Stinky Cheese Man (1992) and other instant classics, this one with a bit of brainwork deftly woven in. Readers can check their answers on the back cover. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-86194-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In a French import that explores emotional and aesthetic responses to color, George the duck (George’s Store at the Shore, 1998) tries to settle on a color to paint his house. Red? The ladybugs are encouraging: “Red is joyful, a splendid color!” Blue? “The color of dreams,” sings a bluebird. Orange? Purple? Black? George’s country villa, surrounded by flowers and vineyards, makes an idyllic background for his considerations; although Bassäde mixes flora from different seasons together and misnames (at least for the US audience) some yellow flowers “mimosa,” her free brushwork and soft hues create a pleasing atmosphere. George eventually chooses a harmonious gray-green, then invites all of his animal advisors to a garden party, shown on a wordless spread in which all his options are visually reprised. This is a horizon-expanding next step after color primers such as Bill Martin’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (1967). (Picture book. 6-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30150-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
Between midnight and noon a family sleeps, wakes, then leaves the house to the pets and a pair of enterprising mice, while a grandfather clock sounds hourly “dings” and “dongs.” Children can practice an increasingly old-fashioned skill by manipulating clock hands on the cover as they listen to Behrman’s rhymed text and view Takahashi’s spacious, twisty domestic scenes. It’s an adequate second choice, after Dan Harper’s Telling Time with Big Mama Cat (1998); that book has a less generic story line, and is designed so that the clock face folds out. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5804-4
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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