Less a romp than a stroll—enjoyable but a little sedate.
A gallery of shark shapes and sizes, attitudes and appetites.
Bright (and forgivably inaccurate) colors saturate otherwise-simple spreads that catalog some of the many species of sharks that live in our planet’s oceans. Lilting text introduces different sharks in opposing and oversimplified terms: “Some sharks are bottom dwellers… / but other sharks are surface breakers” (referencing the goblin shark and the great white, respectively). Very general differences in ferocity (whale shark and bull shark), pickiness (basking shark and tiger shark), social habits (lemon shark and cookiecutter shark), and climate preferences (Greenland shark and hammerhead shark) frame each new pair of sharks, with each presented on its own spread—visually striking but counterproductive to the text’s attempt at continuity. More-specific facts and explanations are omitted, hopefully prompting curiosity that will send readers to their libraries or, if they’re lucky, their local aquarium, where Paul somewhat flimsily reminds them sharks can be visited up close. Unfortunately, and despite colorful and inviting illustrations, these same omissions also make this a book unlikely to be called on more than once or twice. Those with “Baby Shark” fans to satisfy should try pairing this with Shawn Loves Sharks, by Curtis Manley and illustrated by Tracy Subisak (2017), or Misunderstood Shark, by Amy Dyckman and illustrated by Scott Magoon (2018), to up both the entertainment and information values.
Less a romp than a stroll—enjoyable but a little sedate. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6702-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
Chilling in the best ways.
When a young rabbit who’s struggling in school finds a helpful crayon, everything is suddenly perfect—until it isn’t.
Jasper is flunking everything except art and is desperate for help when he finds the crayon. “Purple. Pointy…perfect”—and alive. When Jasper watches TV instead of studying, he misspells every word on his spelling test, but the crayon seems to know the answers, and when he uses the crayon to write, he can spell them all. When he faces a math quiz after skipping his homework, the crayon aces it for him. Jasper is only a little creeped out until the crayon changes his art—the one area where Jasper excels—into something better. As guilt-ridden Jasper receives accolade after accolade for grades and work that aren’t his, the crayon becomes more and more possessive of Jasper’s attention and affection, and it is only when Jasper cannot take it anymore that he discovers just what he’s gotten himself into. Reynolds’ text might as well be a Rod Serling monologue for its perfectly paced foreboding and unsettling tension, both gentled by lightly ominous humor. Brown goes all in to match with a grayscale palette for everything but the purple crayon—a callback to black-and-white sci-fi thrillers as much as a visual cue for nascent horror readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Chilling in the best ways. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6588-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
