Agatha Parrot is back for another silly, almost plausible adventure.
When the heated box intended to house 13 new chicks at the Odd Street School breaks, Agatha, Martha, Ivy, and Bianca are each given a covered shoe box with chicks inside for them to babysit overnight. When Agatha gets home, her little sister accidentally releases her chicks. Back at school, when the girls get together to let the chicks play soccer, they discover that there are only 12. Agatha’s convinced she’s lost the 13th chicken and spends a scary, mayhem-filled time worrying, going through all sorts of troubles trying to find the missing baby. Could he, for instance, be the blob behind the new wallpaper? “PANIC PANIC!” Agatha’s breezy first-person voice is nothing short of exuberant, sometimes slightly tinged with just a tiny bit of good-humored sarcasm that rings very true, and each of her friends has enough different traits to come across as an individual, though the lack of racial markers will lead readers to believe that they are probably as white as Agatha. Hargis’ black-and-white illustrations are liberally sprinkled through pages that feature plenty of white space and just a couple of paragraphs of easy, inviting text. Two illustrations placed just before the story begins provide helpful background information for readers new to the series.
An enthusiastic romp with a friendly grade schooler, just right for those newly transitioning to chapter books. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-50909-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Clarion
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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