There is a timeless quality to this contemporary story about a Kenyan boy and his mother stretching their food to feed all their friends. As he walks to market with his mom, Adika invites everyone he sees to a pancake dinner, but Mama Panya is worried. She needn’t be, because all the guests come bearing food. To accompany the few pancakes, there is milk and butter from the Maasai children’s cattle, fish caught by the old man, Mzee Odolo, flour for another day, and salt and cardamom. Rafiki Kaya even brings her mbira, her thumb piano. The old tradition of sharing all one’s food with others works again. With the repetition of the phrase “a little bit and a little bit more,” the folkloric feeling intensifies. The watercolor paintings are filled with details of the countryside and the marketplace, although the naïve portrayal of the adults and children tends to be a bit broad. With a recipe for spicy pancakes, information about local animals and village life in Kenya, some general facts and a map, this story will be a welcome addition to a school unit as well as traditional storytime. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-84148-139-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
McClements takes a distinctly parental point of view in portraying a young veggie-hater’s nightly dinner-table performance. “Time for another fun-filled hour,” observes Dad grimly, setting down a plate holding three seemingly boulder-sized peas in front of the hyper-dramatic lad who narrates. One touch of pea to tongue is all it takes to elicit writhing fingers (“Ahh . . . I knew it would start with the fingers”), curling toes (“That’s a new one!”) and twitches that are violent enough to knock over the chair as the child is transformed into . . . “a veggie monster!” Peas choked down at last, the crisis ends—but, of course, there’s always tomorrow’s broccoli. Created with a mix of clipped photo-bits of food and utensils and figures cut from brown paper, the illustrations have a simple look that goes with the pared-down text, the perspectives and dramatic effect reminiscent of Mo Willems’s Pigeon books, but it doesn’t really capture the drama like Lauren Child’s I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato (2000). Still, it may help similarly picky children, and their caregivers, get over taking themselves too seriously. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59990-061-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2007
A second scintillating celebration of personal style and dad-daughter DIY.
Reality puts only a temporary damper on big, glittery plans for a sleepover castle.
New school friend Tam, who shared bánh mi at lunch in The One and Only Sparkella (2021), is arriving in two hours, and before that Sparkella needs to make a castle “fit for two royal highnesses.” Unfortunately, even with Dad’s help, the flimsy cardboard construction collapses as soon as Sparkella climbs inside to test it. What to do? After giving the pouting princess some personal time in the garage, Dad points the way: “I think you have to take what you have and make it SPARKLE like only you can.” And, indeed, by the time brown-skinned “Tam, Queen of Kittens” is dropped off by her grandma, a pair of folding tables have been transformed with paint, wrapping paper, and colorful fabrics into the sparkliest castle ever! Laying on saturated colors and sprays of tiny stars with a lavish hand, Barnes depicts the two young “royals” in flamboyantly decorated settings—even Dad’s motorcycle is a dazzling confection awash in bows, and Dad himself, light-skinned like Sparkella, isn’t the least decorative element considering his fondness for sporting a purple boa and outrageous eyewear when occasion demands. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A second scintillating celebration of personal style and dad-daughter DIY. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-75076-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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