Nice try, but there’s not much here to encourage repeat reads, even with pie.
Repeated attempts yield enjoyable rewards.
That’s apparently the moral of this Canadian import, in which Charlie, an itinerant collector, gathers stuff into his cart in his urban neighborhood and tries to reuse it. From her window, Aunt Myrtle spots a pie in a box on the sidewalk. Charlie wants to eat it but, reminded by Aunt Myrtle the pie’s not his, instead attempts to find the owner on his rounds. Charlie tries to help a girl retrieve her ball; he can’t, though he learns the pie isn’t hers. He fashions a birdbath from a tire—but the pie doesn’t belong to the birds nor to a kid who plays the tuba badly. Having failed to locate the pie’s owner, Charlie returns home. In a pat conclusion, Aunt Myrtle invites the community to gather for a pastry feast. This tale, narrated in present tense, meanders with Charlie; seemingly, its point is to keep trying. Fair enough, but some may feel it should also have strongly tried to dissuade readers from eating food found on streets, boxed or not. Loose, quirky, colorful illustrations, some in panels, depict broad overviews of a city; some are superimposed on photos of urban backgrounds. Dialogue is often set in colored boxes. Brown-bearded Charlie presents white and is casually attired in a green ten-gallon hat and yellow boots; other characters are racially diverse. Aunt Myrtle is a black woman who uses a motorized wheelchair. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12-by-17.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Nice try, but there’s not much here to encourage repeat reads, even with pie. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77306-180-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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