Ambitious and engrossing, this field guide may inspire young readers to do some wandering of their own.
While searching for a wandering pup, a capable young narrator leads a tour through the woods, regaling readers with a blend of memories, facts, and nature appreciation.
Cleverly framing the story as a metafictive trek, Eaton creates a narrative as fascinating and dense as the trees in a hemlock forest. The intrepid narrator identifies realistically rendered tree and animal species and shares facts about nearby geology and geography. While the search for Peppermint feels somewhat tangential, information about cool phenomena such as glacial erratics (giant boulders!) will pique and hold kids’ interest. Vivid illustrations with clean black outlines evoke the sunny vibes of a perfect day in the great outdoors, while a crayon-style art-within-art format allows the narrator to share personal stories of her family coming across a coyote protecting her pups or Mom and Dad pulling porcupine quills from Peppermint’s poor nose. These tales have a raw authenticity, which is fitting given that backmatter explains that many stories are drawn from Eaton’s family’s experiences exploring the Adirondack Mountains, where they live. While there’s much to absorb—a plethora of panels, speech bubbles, graphs, and asides from Peppermint—Eaton weaves together the threads into a seamless whole. The family is light-skinned.
Ambitious and engrossing, this field guide may inspire young readers to do some wandering of their own. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780823452088
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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