Nervous new girl at school tells a lie that seems to get bigger and bigger. On her first day in a new school, Kim Worthington is introduced to the whole class by the teacher. When another girl cries out that her name is Kim, everybody laughs, and the new Kim finds herself weaving a tall tale of her life as Princess Katherine Isabella Marguerite. Her classmates seem so fascinated and attentive that Kim can’t own up to her lie but gets in deeper and deeper instead. Then on the Monday-morning school bus, the cheers turn to jeers when the other students, having watched Kim’s house over the weekend, accuse her of being “a FAKE!” It takes a surprise intervention from Grandma to save the day and pave the way for Kim to set things right. Cocca-Leffler’s sunny illustrations and the book’s playful design help its valuable lesson go down easy. Classmate Jason’s skeptical commentary throughout the week acts as punctuation and leads up to a smile-inducing punchline. Appealing and effective. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4178-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
Grandma Beaver and her grandkit, Bella, share a special bond and a family tradition.
When Bella is born, her grandmother sews a bag that she calls a blessing bag. Over the years, Grandma Beaver places special rocks into the bag as gifts. On the rocks, she writes words that come to have meaning in her granddaughter’s life: love, dedication, honesty, beauty, kindness and courage. After the addition of each stone, Bella learns a lesson about the word as she experiences an appreciation for that quality in her own life. As the wordy story progresses, the illustrations show an aging and more fragile grandmother, and Bella learns what courage is when Grandma Beaver dies. The birth of Bella’s brother allows her to repeat the beloved custom and remember her grandmother at the same time. The gentle illustrations are primarily rendered in earthy browns and greens, adding reds and pinks when Bella tells a lie or confesses to Mama that she has not truly lived up to her grandmother’s expectations. Each spread leaves little to the reader’s imagination, as every nuance of text is expressed in smiling suns, flying butterflies and pensive owls. Schools embracing character education often choose a "word of the year," and this offering will dovetail nicely there. Clearly didactic and unabashedly sentimental, though undeniably well-meant. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-897476-61-1
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Simply Read
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Quiet thinkers will enjoy meeting a character like themselves, and others may gain a better understanding of those who crave...
Everyone in the Bungle family squeaks, squawks and squelches too much for Sam, the quiet, dreamy middle-child creature (the Bungles look vaguely like raccoons).
Sam is bombarded by noise in Doyle's captivatingly onomatopoeic free verse. Vere illustrates sound as colorful bubbles and bursts that issue forth from each family member. Against the paper-bag–brown background, readers see pink upside-down teardrop shapes coming from Mama, a purple balloon of sound from Granny’s knitting needles and a spiky orange blast from sister Bella. But poor Sam has a squiggly tornado of black lines above his head. He needs to get away from this noise. “So he upped / and so he offed / and so he wandered / to the woods.” At first all is bliss, as he finds himself surrounded by clouds, trees and a small stream. Bunnies and birds emit tiny sound shapes in pink, yellow and blue. Sam is inspired to create some rhymes, but gradually it gets dark. The deepening purple scenes become increasingly scary as he feels “a flitter-flutter / flap around his face” and then a “slippy-slidy / [slither] / down his neck!” Young ones will see that these threatening things are only benign nocturnal creatures. Predictably, Sam must resort to the behavior he usually loathes and yells for help. Slowly he hears his family come for him as a double-page spread shows him happily engulfed in a “HURRICANE OF NOISE!”
Quiet thinkers will enjoy meeting a character like themselves, and others may gain a better understanding of those who crave a little peace. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6226-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
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