A relatable lesson about online safety.
A young witch navigates the complicated world of the Internet and gets caught in the web of a deceitful spider in Jordan’s (One Creepy Street: Annica’s Broom, 2014) second installment of his children’s book series.
Annica, a 13-year-old witch with a pet bat named Murray, likes to spend time “Surfing the Web.” She watches funny videos on Creepy Tube, plays games, and starts chatting with a funny spider she meets in a virtual game room. After they stay up late at night talking and sending each other pictures, Annica agrees to meet the spider in person at the mall. Luckily for her, Officer Tate has heard that there’s “a spider on the Web unlike any other / Who prowled the Internet, using games as a cover,” and he calls on his informants—a pair of monster twins who live under the local burger shack, Mort the Mortician, and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force—to try and track the spider down. When Annica leaves her computer open and her mother sees her email, she calls Tate, who rushes to save her. Jordan tells the tale in clear, well-written rhyming verse, which helps lighten a very serious story. According to the author’s note, he wrote the story after consulting an investigator from the real-life Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and it teaches a very important lesson about how kids can safely use the Internet and how cautious behaviors in real life—such as not talking to strangers—also carry over to chat rooms: “This type of spider is an expert at deception. / It uses camouflage to alter the prey’s perception.” Rose’s brightly colored, detailed, and successfully creepy illustrations will also help draw readers in. Overall, it’s a good book for parents and kids to read together and talk about how to avoid dangerous situations on the Internet, which has become an indispensable part of everyday life.
A relatable lesson about online safety.Pub Date: April 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61296-525-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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