Find out why people don’t bite people elsewhere; get this to summon instant rereads and loud participation.
A rollicking reminder of what to do—and not do—with your pearly whites.
The commandments rhyme and scan terrifically right out of the gate: “It’s good to bite a carrot. / It’s good to bite a steak. / It’s BAD to bite your sister! / She’s not a piece of cake.” A white, blond, round-headed kid gazes dubiously across the spread at that blonde sister, who occupies the lower left quarter of her page. The other quarters of her page offer—natch—a carrot, a steak, and a piece of cake, all retro-styled and glowing. The next spread features a black sibling team with similar instructions. Refrains reiterate that “BITING IS FOR FOOD!” —once fabulously rhymed with “You’re not a zombie, dude!”—and that a “friend will never bite a friend” (more ideal than truth, honestly). Idle’s pencil colors are rich and soft. Some of her flat, round-headed figures show neat, inventively continuous outlines of positions that evoke stretching or movement, while others’ torsos appear motionless like oval or triangular plastic toys. The gleeful, confident patter feels no need to justify its instructions—no injuries appear, real nor imagined—and to very young readers, biting may sound like merely a manners issue (it’s “nasty” and “rude”).
Find out why people don’t bite people elsewhere; get this to summon instant rereads and loud participation. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9082-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
A sweet and subtle book on sharing.
Rudy’s pink sweater is missing. Readers are invited to follow him as he searches for the sweater.
Rudy is a blue creature with a piggy snout, bunny ears, a thin, tufted tail, and a distraught look on his face. His beloved pink sweater is gone. “It was a bit too small and showed his belly button. But it was his favorite.” Where could it be? In a search that doubles as a countdown from 10 to one, Rudy makes his way through the different rooms of the house—top to bottom, inside and outside. As readers open the wardrobe door, “TEN tumbling cats” provide the first hint as to the sweater’s whereabouts. Following the pink yarn that runs across the pages, readers encounter some surprising creatures in each location—including a crocodile sitting in an outhouse busily knitting—as well as flaps to open and die cuts to peek through. Just as he’s about to give up hope—someone must’ve taken it, but “who would love wearing it as much as he did?”—the answer is revealed: “Trudy! His number ONE sister. The sweater fit her perfectly.” And, as is the nature of stories with a happy ending, Rudy gets a new sweater that fits him, from the knitting crocodile, of course. Plot, interactivity, vocabulary, and counting all contribute in making this an engaging book for the upper edge of the board-book range.
A sweet and subtle book on sharing. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3679-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
A worthy message wrapped up in a playful romp.
A romp about saying “I don’t know.”
An apartment building full of cartoonlike creatures shown interacting through their windows (a clever illustrative decision) evokes the lively life of urban living. When one neighbor asks another (via the window) to wake them up in “20 coconuts,” the neighbor agrees but then admits to himself that he doesn’t know what that means—something that bothers him because he is known for being a know-it-all; in fact, he comes from a family of know-it-alls. Ah, pressure! The know-it-all gets himself into a tizzy, cleans his ears and finds a sock and a chicken, consults “Phoney” (his cellphone), and even gets his brain washed by Wally’s Wash Works. If this all sounds extremely silly and somewhat chaotic, it is—which means kids will probably love it. Eventually, he wakes up his neighbor with his yelling (right on time, apparently) but admits to her he doesn’t know what 20 coconuts means. She offers to explain, but then he says he has to be somewhere in “11 bananas,” throwing her into confusion. The energetic (some may say frenzied) tone is amplified by illustrations that have lots going on, with various characters talking in dialogue bubbles to each other, but the message itself comes across as a little light until an explanatory note from the “brains” spells it out—it’s OK to say you don’t know. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A worthy message wrapped up in a playful romp. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31196-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
