If the parents can pronounce the made-up words properly, a fun time will be had by all.
An illustrated book of children’s poetry, in the spirit of Dr. Seuss.
Dorian is a wordsmith and artist with a passion for creating and illustrating children’s poetry. Imaginative and expressive, Dorian’s work puts a new spin on favorite children’s topics such as getting kids to eat their vegetables, visiting magical places, bugs and making friends. Starting with “Noodle Eater,” Dorian explores how many ways one can eat a child’s favorite food—“I like noodles made with butter / I like noodles tossed with cheese / When I eat them with black pepper / I at once begin to sneeze.” Friends such as Billy Jo Brown (“He lay in a boat parked on the grass”), Jellycake Jane (“Jane serves soup in a teapot, burnt toast on a tray”), Tom Martin MacChase (“As a child Tom could lift ninety pounds in one hand”) and the Muffin Man (“We put blueberry, strawberry, blackberry jam / On our muffins to eat with blue eggs and ham”) are lovable characters, relatable to children and adults. Dorian shines when she uses fantastic words to express everyday actions, emotions or people. Characters such as the llegoswitch, whom you should never visit because, “You’ll be grabbed, and twittered and stuck in a ditch / and tossed 40 feet high in the air,” aren’t frightening. Rather, the play on words conjures up images of a magical, fun-loving animal. But it is to Dorian’s greatest credit that she makes the most dreaded experience for a child the most fun; her poems about food allow children to have no fear to tread into the unknown of new items. “Come along, come on with me to Daredevil’s Hope / I’ll buy all the drinks you can drink / a pineapple-didouble-dipberry-lope / Till you find you can no longer think.” There’s also a chance to try Grasshopper Jam (as well as dragonfly pie and curried ant soup). Dorian brings the reader completely into her world in the books’ titular poem, where she welcomes readers to a magical room that can only be entered by saying the magic word Kaladoosha-mangopipick-eeriedeeriepurd. Brightly colored, textilelike illustrations by the author accompany many of the poems, enriching the reading experience with their childlike exuberance.
If the parents can pronounce the made-up words properly, a fun time will be had by all.Pub Date: July 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461011460
Page Count: 57
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist.
This follow-up to How To Read a Story (2005) shows a child going through the steps of creating a story, from choosing an idea through sharing with friends.
A young black child lies in a grassy field writing in a journal, working on “Step 1 / Search for an Idea— / a shiny one.” During a walk to the library, various ideas float in colorful thought bubbles, with exclamation points: “playing soccer! / dogs!” Inside the library, less-distinct ideas, expressed as shapes and pictures, with question marks, float about as the writer collects ideas to choose from. The young writer must then choose a setting, a main character, and a problem for that protagonist. Plotting, writing with detail, and revising are described in child-friendly terms and shown visually, in the form of lists and notes on faux pieces of paper. Finally, the writer sits in the same field, in a new season, sharing the story with friends. The illustrations feature the child’s writing and drawing as well as images of imagined events from the book in progress bursting off the page. The child’s main character is an adventurous mermaid who looks just like the child, complete with afro-puff pigtails, representing an affirming message about writing oneself into the world. The child’s family, depicted as black, moves in the background of the setting, which is also populated by a multiracial cast.
A lovely encouragement to young writers to persist. (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5666-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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