With plenty of books about imaginary animals and real pets to choose from, steer away from this one.
Sir Tim is looking for a dragon and won’t take no for an answer.
A little boy with a toy helmet, a shield design on his sweater, a red cape, and a dragon book heads to the neighborhood pet store to find such an animal, even though his mother tells him: “I don’t think they sell dragons at the pet shop, you know.” The friendly shopkeeper tries to persuade Tim that he might like a turtle, saying: “A turtle is green like a dragon.” Tim rejects the turtle as too slow. When offered a rabbit (known for speed), Tim avers: “No, a rabbit isn’t dangerous enough.” He is also disdainful of the mouse offered by the man, who says, “A mouse has sharp teeth, just like a dragon, and it’s fast, too.” Each time Tim uses the refrain: “I want a DRAGON!” Disappointed, Tim and his mother start to walk away until the shopkeeper brings out a puppy, who just happens to be named Dragon (or so the store owner says). After a friendly lick, Tim too quickly gives up his objections and embraces this new pet. Although the loosely sketched and painted illustrations have a pleasant childlike naiveté, the story is both lackluster and hard to believe. All the characters in this Dutch import are white.
With plenty of books about imaginary animals and real pets to choose from, steer away from this one. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: July 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-60537-369-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
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
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