Though it has supporting themes about friendship and imagination, the biggest appeal here is that it’s just plain fun....
Funny and charming, this picture book debut by author/illustrator Krol stars pint-sized aliens who always know how to lend a hand (and a laugh).
Clearly alien, with green skin and antennae or gray skin and elongated faces, the Quest-terrestrials do their best to blend in on any planet, whether it’s with humans or cacti. But they also love to take center stage and be unique. They like to go fast, and they like “things that, um, float?” the narrator explains in a dubious tone, accompanied by an image of the little aliens with pink balloons tied to their middles. The Quest-terrestrials also have the qualities of good friends: They catch friends when they fall and help them when they’re scared. Krol has a way of defying expectations. When the narrator describes simple pleasures, the aliens are shown with a leaf blower sending them (and a field of daisies) flying; when the aliens love something sweet, the page almost overflows with blue cotton candy. The Quest-terrestrials are fond of furry creatures, but they love unicorns best (enough to figure out how to bring one back to their home planet). The story ends on a gross-out note—and another expectation swap—that will leave readers giggling. Krol’s art has plenty of kid appeal, and the rough, cartoonish style is perfect for enhancing the text’s sense of humor.
Though it has supporting themes about friendship and imagination, the biggest appeal here is that it’s just plain fun. Expect plenty of giggles—from children and parents.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-2190-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
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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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
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BOOK REVIEW
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