This magical, imaginative, humorously illustrated tale may quell the fears of readers scared of storms.
A boy who is frightened of thunder embarks on an amazing journey to find out what causes the roar in this debut picture book.
The narrator, a bespectacled White boy with short brown hair and a feline companion, hears a boom in the sky and gets nervous. But despite hiding under the covers, the kid feels no better. After recalling other storms, he sets off, determined to identify who’s behind the roar and tell the villain to stop. With a balloon harness worthy of a Pixar movie, the narrator floats into the clouds, discovering ballerina sky pirates and intrepid firefighters before realizing that the rumble comes from an angry dinosaur mama, whose children have destroyed her pie. After the resourceful mama makes another one and the dino kids share a slice with the narrator, the boy returns home, no longer scared of thunder. Weaver’s opening is true to childhood fears of storms, making the whimsical journey feel even more enchanting. The author’s rhyming text scans well, featuring some challenging vocabulary words (scramble, oodles, scrumptious) for newly independent readers. Weaver’s digital cartoon illustrations employ bright colors, even during the storm. The boy’s cat appears in almost every spread, sometimes costumed or mischievous but always providing insight into the narrator’s emotions. A recipe for berry pie at the end, best made with an adult’s help, may encourage young readers to bake dinosaur desserts during tempests.
This magical, imaginative, humorously illustrated tale may quell the fears of readers scared of storms.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73626-730-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: A Little Offbeat Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Earnest and well meaning but not quite a touchdown.
In Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Hurts’ motivational picture book, a youngster rebounds from disappointment.
As Jalen heads off on his first day of school, he daydreams about joining the football team, but his friend Trey soon breaks the bad news. The garden club needed more space for vegetables, so the football field was used for planting. There will be no football this year. Jalen is despondent, but his teachers Mrs. Lee and Mr. Barry and bodega owner Mr. Muhammad offer guidance that spurs him and his friends into positive action. They work to flip a nearby empty lot into a football field, with Jalen echoing his mentors’ adages. Once the field is complete, Jalen feels a swell of pride in his and his friends’ work. While the idea of kids working together to effect change is a laudable one, the bland, wordy storytelling won’t inspire young people or hold their attention. Tired, cliched inspirational comments peppered throughout often slow down the narrative, and many adult readers will find the premise—a school dropping a high-interest sports program in favor of a community garden—wildly unrealistic. Though the illustrations are colorful, with a Disney Junior charm, strange stylistic choices, such as signs with odd combinations of scribbles instead of letters, give them an unpolished look. Like Hurts, Jalen is Black; his community is diverse.
Earnest and well meaning but not quite a touchdown. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9798217040308
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
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