A child’s urge to tinker brings her entire class to the brink of disaster—and, happily, back. Everyone starts out to school dressed in their best, but they take on an increasingly spotty look after Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First sprays them with oil while disassembling the school bus’s gear shift; with pencil shavings when she deconstructs the pencil sharpener; then water as she plumbs the sprinkler system’s mysteries; and finally soot from the bowels of the boiler. The rather twee photographer—“ ‘Everyone, say cheesy wheezy, if you pleasy’ ”—has troubles too, as he struggles to get the children together, only to discover that his camera is kaflooie. Sounds like a job for you-know-who. Wickstrom fills his cartoon classroom scenes with gap-toothed, square-mouthed grins, and gives his dark-skinned engineer-in-training both a tool chest and an expression of fierce concentration. Young readers, with or without a mechanical vocation, will laugh at Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First’s compulsive “fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foodling,” as well as the decidedly unusual class portrait that ultimately results. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-46886-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Maxine and her younger twin brothers imagine themselves to be superheroes as they confront everyday problems—like how to retrieve their soccer ball from a grouchy neighbor's flowerbed, rescue a cat from a tree, or persuade their mother to let them have a pet. Their ill-considered ``solutions'' (usually Maxine's proposals) only get them into trouble until, in a last-chapter turnaround, they help police capture two fleeing suspects. Though this British import features a black, female-headed family and women in nontraditional occupations, it's too predictable and silly for its target audience and too long for a younger one. B&w pencil drawings of all the mishaps. (Fiction. 6-8.)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-525-45065-3
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1993
In this reverent version of a Jataka tale, a magnificent stag known as the Banyan Deer goes willingly to sacrifice in place of a pregnant doe. When the king of Benares hears the deer speak, he releases it, pledging protection to its herd and to ``creatures of all kinds who live in fear of men.'' In turn, the deer agree to stay away from local farmers' fields. Long after, the Banyan Deer was reborn as the Buddha. San Souci's exact, brightly lit watercolors follow the story closely, capturing the grace and dignity of both the dappled golden deer and the theme of concern for all life. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 31, 1992
ISBN: 0-684-19218-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1992
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