A simple and effective introduction to a profession not often touched upon in picture books.
Schleuter’s debut picture book follows a civil engineer through a typical day’s work.
Ollie is an indigo-skinned, elven-eared young man. When he gets ready for work, he covers his wild, violet hair with a yellow hardhat. He dons a yellow safety vest and sets out to the building site where a tower block is being erected. Ollie checks the supplies, then moves on to a second site where a bridge is being constructed. Here he consults with other team members—all with skin hues evoking different colors of the rainbow—then embarks upon the planning of a road between the two sites. Ollie returns to his office to make calculations on his computer. Schleuter lays down a brief, fact-driven narrative across nine two-page spreads, favoring end-rhymes without any great sense of metric rhythm: “Asphalt over layers of rock and sand. / The design is ready, the work / can be planned.” Given the essentially nonfictional nature of the story, budding engineers may have preferred plain prose. Nonetheless, Ollie’s job is portrayed in vibrant, energetic scenes that instill a sense of wonder and emphasize the importance of the work being done. 2 Create Labs’ digital illustrations are appropriately functional, capturing much of the constructive clutter of genuine worksites while indulging in some nice artistic touches in the background buildings and Ollie’s work desk.
A simple and effective introduction to a profession not often touched upon in picture books.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2025
ISBN: 9798992218602
Page Count: 24
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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