A unique take on the Romeo and Juliet theme with appealing cartoon mosquitos, but its text will likely confuse young readers...
Screenwriter Lannini (Letters to My Angels, Wikki and Blue, 2014) tackles a timeless tale of star-crossed lovers as a mosquito who can turn into a human tries to make peace between her human lover and mosquito family in this screenplaylike children’s picture-book debut.
Mosquito general Tazzi and his wife, Heeleen—the village’s greatest warrior—are delighted to welcome their daughter, Skeeter, into the world. But after a storm, they’re shocked to find that their child has been replaced by a human baby. They soon discover that Skeeter changes into a human girl during hot, dry weather. As an adult, she’s still fascinated by the human side of her nature, and during a period of exploring life as a human, she falls in love with a man named Martin. Later, as a mosquito, she bites her human rival for Martin’s affections, and she tries to convince her parents that she’s as much a human as she is one of their kind. At first, Martin seems to take her condition in stride, but then he decides that he can’t marry a part-time human, leaving Skeeter heartbroken. However, when a group of humans threatens Skeeter’s village, Martin comes through to help save them. The premise of this book is more about identity politics than romance: Skeeter’s desire to become permanently human is certainly driven by her love, but her quest to understand both sides of her nature—and make peace between humans and mosquitos—is also a strong theme. The book’s format leaves much to be desired, though, as it’s more like a storyboard for an animated feature than a simple picture book. The illustrations, with their stylized mosquitos and fun shrinking and growing effects, stand on their own, but the text seems like a synopsis with dialogue added: “In DR. GEEZE’s lab. SKEETER: DR. GEEZE, I want to tell you a secret…I think I’m in love. GEEZE: In love? With whom?” The text is also oddly formatted around the illustrations, sometimes in two or three columns, in order to fit on the pages.
A unique take on the Romeo and Juliet theme with appealing cartoon mosquitos, but its text will likely confuse young readers who are unfamiliar with storyboards and screenplays.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5049-5347-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In her first children's book, Parton (the country music star) turns one of her songs into a saccharine tale about a girl who is so poor that her mama has to sew her a patchwork coat when the weather turns cold. (Joseph and his coat of many colors are mentioned but never explained.) Despite the girl's love for her coat, she is teased in school, which she counters by trying to explain to her classmates ``that one is only poor/if they choose to be.'' The logic here is as flawed as the grammar, and Sutton's illustrations, while competent, show a well-dressed, happy rural family who look anything but poor. The text is both clumsy and irrelevent (it ends with ``Through life I've remained happy/and good luck is on my side./I have everything that anyone/could ever want from life.'') An apparently autobiographical song that has a hard time standing on its own as a compelling children's story. (Picture book. All ages)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-023413-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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