A powerful message about the support of friends and defusing a bully wrapped in a sweet Valentine tale.
While Dewey Dew is adjusting well to life on Earth, he still has trouble with a few things, mostly the pronunciation of the word “love” and the bully at school.
The first one can be a problem, especially in the month of February, when “wuhbuh” is on everyone’s mind. His mother tries to help him, but Dewey’s frustration rises to tantrum levels. Her soothing reassurance, “Shee shoo-shoo tanna-wattoo,” sounds “like honey and birds’ wings and safety and singing,” and it’s easy for Dewey Dew to say. But that doesn’t help when faced with Brutus Auralias’ taunting “Wubbah Boy.” “Dewey’s urdle tightened. His eyeball squeezed. Blue-black smoke rose dangerously from his hork.” Just in time his loyal friends save the day, twice in fact. But the teasing leaves Dewey Dew fantasizing about leaving Earth behind…until he devises a solution that encapsulates the sentiment behind Valentine’s Day: he teaches his class to say “I love you” in his language. And they have just as much trouble with it as he has with the word “love.” His effort brings the whole class together, even Brutus. Mack’s pencil, watercolor, and digital illustrations work in tandem with Staub’s marvelously inventive language to ensure readers understand Dewey’s Eighty-N words. And the characters’ facial expressions and posture speak volumes all on their own.
A powerful message about the support of friends and defusing a bully wrapped in a sweet Valentine tale. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62979-497-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Making friends isn’t always this easy and convenient.
How do you make a new friend when an old one moves away?
Buddy (from Sorry, Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go to School, 2019, etc.) is feeling lonely. His best friend just moved across town. To make matters worse, there is a field trip coming up, and Buddy needs a bus partner. His sister, Lady, has some helpful advice for making a new pal: “You just need to find something you have in common.” Buddy loves the game Robo Chargers and karate. Surely there is someone else who does, too! Unfortunately, there isn’t. However, when a new student arrives (one day later) and asks everyone to call her Sunny instead of Alison, Buddy gets excited. No one uses his given name, either; they just call him Buddy. He secretly whispers his “real, official name” to Sunny at lunch—an indication that a true friendship is being formed. The rest of the story plods merrily along, all pieces falling exactly into place (she even likes Robo Chargers!), accompanied by Bowers’ digital art, a mix of spot art and full-bleed illustrations. Friendship-building can be an emotionally charged event in a child’s life—young readers will certainly see themselves in Buddy’s plight—but, alas, there is not much storytelling magic to be found. Buddy and his family are White, Sunny and Mr. Teacher are Black, and Buddy’s other classmates are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Making friends isn’t always this easy and convenient. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-30709-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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