Anderson’s first book is a colorful, happy-go-lucky look at color vision deficiency.
Erik the Red, a creative redhead, doesn’t feel right. Suddenly, he can’t read the chalkboard, do the right homework or kick to his own team. Rhyming admonitions playfully correct him: “Erik the Red, is your brain still in bed?” He’s happiest in art class, until one day, he paints himself as Erik the Green. Classmate Annabel understands what’s wrong: He has color vision deficiency, also known as color blindness, just like her father. The new, green chalkboard, color-coded homework questions, and green and red pinneys mix him up. Erik’s green-tinted vision contrasts well with López’s brightly varied colors; even the eager faces of Erik’s classmates are a spectrum of diverse skin tones. Illustrations of everyday objects compare what Erik sees to what his classmates see, revealing that seemingly minor details—yellow chalk on a green chalkboard or color-coded index cards—can be a major problem for people with CVD. With careful explanations and simple, matter-of-fact accommodations, Erik can participate in school again, but in art class, he still enjoys being “color vision quirky.” An author’s note answers common questions about color vision deficiency and offers ways to help people with CVD (such as resisting the urge to quiz them on what color something is), and the yellow-green endpapers act as clever punctuation.
This cheery portrayal of color vision deficiency will appeal to curious and quirky kids who want to see the world a little differently. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8075-2141-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts.
In this latest slice in the Food Group series, Humble Pie learns to stand up to a busy friend who’s taking advantage of his pal’s hard work on the sidelines.
Jake the Cake and Humble Pie are good friends. Where Pie is content to toil in the background, Jake happily shines in the spotlight. Alert readers will notice that Pie’s always right there, too, getting A-pluses and skiing expertly just behind—while also doing the support work that keeps every school and social project humming. “Fact: Nobody notices pie when there’s cake nearby!” When the two friends pair up for a science project, things begin well. But when the overcommitted Jake makes excuse after excuse, showing up late or not at all, a panicked Pie realizes that they won’t finish in time. When Jake finally shows up on the night before the project’s due, Pie courageously confronts him. “And for once, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.” The friends talk it out and collaborate through the night for the project’s successful presentation in class the next day. John and Oswald’s winning recipe—plentiful puns and delightful visual jokes—has yielded another treat here. The narration does skew didactic as it wraps up: “There’s nothing wrong with having a tough conversation, asking for help, or making sure you’re being treated fairly.” But it’s all good fun, in service of some gentle lessons about social-emotional development.
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780063469730
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This lacks the information of other nonfiction titles and the pizzazz of April Pulley Sayre’s Go, Go, Grapes! (2012), but it...
The prolific Gibbons tackles fruits—how they grow, their parts, and what portions we eat.
Beginning with facts about perennial and annual fruits and how many servings children should aim for each day, the book then looks at how fruits can grow on plants, bushes, vines, and trees. Good vocabulary is introduced and defined along the way—botanist, pollination, cultivated. The middle of the book is taken up by individual looks at 13 different kinds of fruits that show cutaway views labeled with parts, the whole plant/bush/vine/tree, and some of the popular varieties—for grapes, golden muscat, red flame, and concord. This is followed by a discussion of growing seasons and climates, large farms versus backyard ones, harvesting fruit and getting it to market, and some other fruits that were not featured in the text, including star fruits, apricots, and persimmons. A final page lists more fruit facts and two websites (one for the United States, one for Canada) about food guidelines. The text sometimes gets lost in Gibbons’ busy and full pages, and while her illustrations are detailed and specific for each type of fruit, the watercolors won’t make mouths water.
This lacks the information of other nonfiction titles and the pizzazz of April Pulley Sayre’s Go, Go, Grapes! (2012), but it may be just the ticket before a school trip to a farm. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3204-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
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