In attempting to address both the importance of exercise and the value of social activism, the story fails to truly engage...
Noticing that her mother lacks energy and has put on some weight, young Estela suggests that she join some of the neighbors in the salsa class at the community recreation center.
Eventually, Mami joins and finds that she enjoys the exercise. The teacher lets Estela join in the salsa class too, until the director of the center decides that children are no longer allowed in the class. Estela is disappointed, but then she learns about petitions in school. Suddenly, her parents are helping her set up a table where Estela collects hundreds of signatures. She even gains the support of the mayor, and the recreation center opens a salsa class for kids. As if this weren’t over-the-top enough, Estela receives an award from the mayor and special recognition at the school, including a ribbon to wear that reads “#1 Student.” The story then awkwardly jumps back to the importance of exercise for both adults and children, commenting on the “trim and healthy” appearances of Estela and her mother. The illustrations portray diverse people with varying body types, but they feel stiff. Some of the spreads seem sketchlike in their lack of detail.
In attempting to address both the importance of exercise and the value of social activism, the story fails to truly engage readers on either topic. (Bilingual picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55885-762-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
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Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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