Crabby's and Plankton’s attempts at understanding and friendship provide good examples for beginning readers.
The grumpy crab and cheerful plankton are back for another four chapters of miscommunication following series opener Hello, Crabby! (2019).
Once again, Crabby just wants a day at the beach: “The wind in my face. / The spray in my eyes. / The kelp in my claws. / It is enough to make a crab crabby.” Sociable Plankton tries to get Crabby to play familiar childhood games: guess who, Simon says, hide-and-seek, and tag. In each short chapter, Crabby and Plankton’s repartee, loaded with double meanings, leads to misunderstandings that new readers will easily understand. For example, when Plankton proclaims, “YAY! We can play Simon Says!” Crabby replies, “Who is Simon?” Finally they agree to play Crabby says. Of course, Crabby’s first command is “Crabby says— / stop playing Crabby Says!” Color-coded speech bubbles make following their arguments easy. Appropriately repetitive dialogue-only text, uncluttered backgrounds, and a small trim size help new readers make the transition to longer books. Throughout, Crabby and Plankton remain true to their personas. Crabby is grumpy but polite—not actively mean. The persistent Plankton, though increasingly exasperated, is ultimately patient. Neither abandons civility and courtesy just because they have different interests or styles.
Crabby's and Plankton’s attempts at understanding and friendship provide good examples for beginning readers. (Graphic early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-28157-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the...
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike.
Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end.
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87083-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
