by Marshall Arisman and illustrated by Marshall Arisman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009
Arisman crafts a nuanced story depicting (literally and figuratively) a sax-playing, Delta-born cat named Stringbean McCoy. After apprenticing to a street blues guitarist, Stringbean heads to New York City. Sitting in with a house band, he knows he needs to ante up to earn the musicians’ respect. Daringly, he slips off his shoes and, while front paws play the band’s tune, his hind paws play “Mississippi Blues.” Stringbean’s innovations electrify the room. Arisman riffs playfully on notions of “cool” and “square” cats—the latter receive cubist treatments amid the hipper denizens of the NYC scene. The milk-sipping, humanoid cats (plus occasional dogs and monkeys) move within Expressionist cityscapes. Bright interiors of red and yellow spill against the street’s blue-grays. While the text snappily conveys the vibrancy of bebop, the design poorly serves both words and pictures. The font is tiny, the leading too wide. The layout is all over the place: Spots, gratuitous, colored borders, full-bleed double spreads, three-quarter spreads and the occasional, arbitrary use of matte silver paper jostle incoherently, subverting Arisman’s intriguing visual metaphors and well-tuned ear for his subject. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-56846-152-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2008
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by Lisa Bowes ; illustrated by James Hearne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019
It’s a slam dunk
Lucy discovers that the way to learn to play basketball is with friends on a neighborhood court.
Lucy loves playing in the park, and one day she and her friends join their friend Ava and her cousin in their new favorite sport: basketball. Pro player Jermaine, aka “Coach J,” teaches all the basics—footwork, quick passes, dribbling, and a variety of shots. But he also encourages the players to keep trying when they miss, stresses the value of teamwork, and focuses on fun as they learn and later play a practice game. At the end of the workout, Coach J invites the young players to watch him and his team play. Written in loose rhyming couplets, the text has many near rhymes and inconsistent meter. While the storyline is predictable, the book is a good introduction to basketball terms, and young basketball players and fans will appreciate reading about themselves. Vivid silhouetted figures against a white background portray male and female players of several races; Lucy herself is white while Ava and Coach J are black. One young player competes from a wheelchair. A half page of backmatter explains the history of basketball, the NBA and its players, and wheelchair basketball, and one entry also explains the three-on-three basketball that the children play. The book publishes in a simultaneous French edition translated by Rachel Martinez.
It’s a slam dunk . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1697-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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by Lisa Bowes ; illustrated by James Hearne
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by Valeri Gorbachev ; illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2016
An early reader that kids will want to befriend.
In an odd-couple pairing of Bear and Chipmunk, only one friend is truly happy to spend the day at the beach.
“Not me!” is poor Chipmunk’s lament each time Bear expresses the pleasure he takes in sunning, swimming, and other activities at the beach. While controlled, repetitive text makes the story accessible to new readers, slapstick humor characterizes the busy watercolor-and-ink illustrations and adds interest. Poor Chipmunk is pinched by a crab, buried in sand, and swept upside down into the water, to name just a few mishaps. Although other animal beachgoers seem to notice Chipmunk’s distress, Bear cheerily goes about his day and seems blithely ignorant of his friend’s misfortunes. The playful tone of the illustrations helps soften the dynamic so that it doesn’t seem as though Chipmunk is in grave danger or that Bear is cruel. As they leave at the end of the book Bear finally asks, “Why did you come?” and Chipmunk’s sweet response caps off the day with a warm sunset in the background.
An early reader that kids will want to befriend. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3546-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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