THE THREE LITTLE ALIENS AND THE BIG BAD ROBOT

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THE THREE LITTLE ALIENS AND THE BIG BAD ROBOT

Name: THE THREE LITTLE ALIENS AND THE BIG BAD ROBOT
Author: Margaret McNamara
ISBN: 978-0-375-86689-0

by Margaret McNamara & illustrated by Mark Fearing ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 2011

This one may be too stuck on the arc of the original tale to come alive in its own right. (Picture book. 5-7)

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An extremely odd variant on "The Three Little Pigs."

It's time for Bork (two eyes, the sister), Gork (the one-eyed brother) and Nklxwcyz (three eyes, like their mom) to go out into the universe to find their own planets. Mom tells them to stick together and watch out for the Big Bad Robot. Bork chooses the red planet, and Gork is enchanted by the golden rings of another, but Nklxwcyz chooses Neptune and builds his house of space stuff and space junk. When the Big Bad Robot smashes Bork’s and Gork’s homes, they flee to Nklxwcyz, whose house is so strong that the Robot gets stuck in the telescope/chimney and explodes. The three children call mom, as exhorted, and she comes to tuck all three into bed. The green-skinned, red-haired or bald little aliens careen around the starry black universe with jetpacks and clear, round headgear, and there is some faint echo of charm in “ ‘Little alien! Little alien!’ it broinked. ‘COME OUT OF HIDING!’ / ‘Not by the orbit of this ring I’m riding!’ ” (The classic dialogue varies slightly from sibling to sibling.) It fails the logic test, though: The Big Bad Robot is fearsome, but there really doesn't seem to be a good reason for him to go after these kids.

This one may be too stuck on the arc of the original tale to come alive in its own right. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-375-86689-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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THE COOKIE VOTE
by Margaret McNamara & Daniel Bernstrom ; illustrated by G. Brian Karas

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THE LITTLE LIBRARY
by Margaret McNamara ; illustrated by G. Brian Karas

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VOTE FOR OUR FUTURE!
by Margaret McNamara ; illustrated by Micah Player

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HIPPOS CAN'T SWIM

AND OTHER FUN FACTS

From the Did You Know? series

by Laura Lyn DiSiena ; Hannah Eliot ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2014

The pictures are a weak link, but younger readers and listeners will happily take this quick dive into the sea of random...

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Smooth segues provide the cement for this high-wattage, if less-than-carefully illustrated, set of animal facts.

Oswald’s cartoon images of popeyed, well-caffeinated creatures crank up the visual energy to frantic levels. Unfortunately, at the outset, they contradict the author’s correct observation that hippos’ noses are placed on the tops of their heads. In another misstep, both illustration and a thought balloon misleadingly suggest that bats can recognize a passing 747 with echolocation (their range is much, much smaller). For the most part, though, DiSiena and Eliot’s revelations are both accurate and just as detailed as they need to be to keep and hold attention. They glide from the hippo’s titular lack of buoyancy (they walk along river bottoms) to the surprising fleetness of sea turtles. From there, it’s on to jellyfish, which don’t actively swim but do flash with bioluminescence—just like fireflies. So it goes, until the parade of facts circles neatly back around to blue whales (“actually the largest animals that have ever lived”) and a closing assurance that “unlike hippos…blue whales sure can SWIM!” Though the authors supply no supportive references or leads to further information, they do tuck in an additional “Fun Fact” about each of the 14 animals at the end. A companion, Chickens Don’t Fly and Other Fun Facts, publishes simultaneously.

The pictures are a weak link, but younger readers and listeners will happily take this quick dive into the sea of random knowledge. (Informational picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4424-9352-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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A GIFT FROM THE SEA

by Kate Banks & illustrated by Georg Hallensleben ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 2001

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The luster dims a bit for the author and illustrator of Night Workers (2000) and their other wonderfully soothing picture books, as they go more for poetry than science in trying to give younger children a sense of our planet's antiquity. While a dark-eyed boy picks up a rock on a beach, contemplates it quietly, then takes it home to place alongside his collection of sea glass, flashback scenes track his prize from its volcanic origins, as it "cooled in the shade of a thousand years," lay on a grassy highland while dinosaurs came and went, sheltered cave-dwellers, partly blocked an ancient city street, was washed down to the sea, and finally came to be "thrust" in some unexplained manner, "onto the beach." The semi-impressionistic paintings are tranquil as ever, even when that mood isn't really appropriate, and the rock, depicted as an indistinct, darkly orange blob, seems to move under its own power into and out of the calm ocean. Share this with a child at bed or rest time, but other rocks make less arbitrary, and more clearly articulated, journeys in such books as Meredith Hooper's Pebble in My Pocket (1996). (Picture book. 5-7)