A book that is as helpful as its protagonist.
A robot learns how to get in touch with their own feelings and finds ways to help a lonely newcomer, a hungry extraterrestrial pet, and a pair of grown-ups with rigid views on binary gender roles.
Wheeling about the orbiting Science Outpost B-333, looking for ways to be helpful, Robot resembles R2-D2 in the very simple cartoon illustrations, though they have both a face and a habit of changing color in each chapter. They first have a comfy talk about personal reactions with Dr. Grbzl, a froglike therapist, then an amusing conversation with two scowling guards aboard a visiting spacecraft: “Are you a boy or a girl?” one asks. “No,” Robot responds. Next, learning through trial and error that a cute bunnylike creature is actually a ravening “vexzor” whose “favorite foods were scientists and crewmembers,” Robot finds an acceptable dietary substitute, and lastly they make Yuli, a new cloud person from planet Cumuli who communicates only in Cumulan Sign Language, welcome with an overture of friendship. Robot is assigned no pronoun until adopting “they” in the course of arguing with the guards. Occasional “science words” like “assessment” or “binary” are bolded and defined in a glossary at the end. Early readers have come a long way from the topics and tropes of Amelia Bedelia, and though in vocabulary these four miniepisodes stand at a relatively advanced level, emergent readers will be comfortable with both their format and their themes and messages.
A book that is as helpful as its protagonist. (Early reader. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-0878-7552-1
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Huggle Bug Books
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
Charming.
An assortment of unusual characters form friendships and help each other become their best selves.
Mr. and Mrs. Tupper, who live at Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, are antiquarians. Their daughter, Jillian, loves and cares for a plant named Ivy, who has “three speckles on each leaf and three letters in her name.” Toasty, the grumpy goldfish, lives in an octagonal tank and wishes he were Jillian’s favorite; when Arthur the spider arrives inside an antique desk, he brings wisdom and insight. Ollie the violet plant, Louise the bee, and Sunny the canary each arrive with their own quirks and problems to solve. Each character has a distinct personality and perspective; sometimes they clash, but more often they learn to empathize, see each other’s points of view, and work to help one another. They also help the Tupper family with bills and a burglar. The Fan brothers’ soft-edged, old-fashioned, black-and-white illustrations depict Toasty and Arthur with tiny hats; Ivy and Ollie have facial expressions on their plant pots. The Tuppers have paper-white skin and dark hair. The story comes together like a recipe: Simple ingredients combine, transform, and rise into something wonderful. In its matter-of-fact wisdom, rich vocabulary (often defined within the text), hint of magic, and empathetic nonhuman characters who solve problems in creative ways, this delightful work is reminiscent of Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo, and Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord and Stephanie Graegin.
Charming. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781665942485
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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