Cheerful and bright, this heroine calls for authenticity and representation.
Amy Wu flexes her problem-solving skills again in this sequel to Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao (2019).
After reading them a story about dragons, Ms. Mary has Amy and her classmates design their own dragons. While her classmates quickly fill the show-and-tell table with winged, pot-bellied dragons fashioned with modeling clay and stamps, Amy struggles. At first she paints a thin, long-bodied dragon inspired by Eastern cultures, but her classmates are confused and challenge the authenticity of her creation since it is a departure from the Western dragons showcased during storytime. The straightforward text narrates as Amy doubts her design, eventually drawing Western dragons yet still feeling dissatisfied. Accompanied by her classmates Willa and Sam, Amy returns home to Grandma, who tells the trio tales about Asian dragons, which causes Amy to remember the dragon costume used during Chinese New Year that’s stored in the attic. Inspired, Amy is finally able to showcase a dragon at school that takes a bit from both cultures and is a design she can call entirely her own. Chua again brings plenty of colorful spirit with her cartoons, perfectly capturing Amy’s fun, creative energy and surrounding her Chinese protagonist with a diverse school community. (Sam has brown skin and straight, black hair, and Willa presents White.) What is even more appealing is the courage Amy models to readers to stay true to oneself, especially when faced with a lack of role models. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 78.8% of actual size.)
Cheerful and bright, this heroine calls for authenticity and representation. (crafts) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6363-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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