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FRANK THE SEVEN-LEGGED SPIDER

Name: FRANK THE SEVEN-LEGGED SPIDER
Author: Michaele Razi
ISBN: 978-1-63217-128-3

by Michaele Razi ; illustrated by Michaele Razi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2017

By turns hilarious, affirming, and an itsy bit disturbing.

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After losing a leg, a spider sets out to find it—and his identity.

Frank likes spinning beautiful webs—they’re works of art, really—and scaring humans, which also entertains (most of) his friends. But above all, he likes his eight “beautiful, glorious” legs. When he wakes up missing one, (most of) his friends wonder what happened. Is he still a spider? After getting his balance, Frank searches for his leg in unusual places to no avail. Fortunately, some practical ants remind him that he can still spin and jump, averting his identity crisis; the last scene finds Frank pranking an unsuspecting cyclist, who’s about to ride smack into Frank’s grinning, seven-legged self-portrait. But wait—is that a sneakered severed leg somebody’s holding in the credits? The story’s short, direct sentences and speech-balloon dialogue are reassuringly pragmatic, acknowledging difficulties and moving on. The deceptively straightforward text lures readers into the digital illustrations’ silly punch lines and droll grace notes, the figures and their muted colors magnified against minimal background. Composed of simple, high-contrast circles, Frank conveys everything from annoyance to joy with his wide eyes and tiny-fang-tipped mouth. Frank’s infectious expressions and humorous misadventures give his disability a refreshingly lighthearted treatment, but the Jon Klassen–esque twist puts a wicked spin on his journey to acceptance.

By turns hilarious, affirming, and an itsy bit disturbing. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-63217-128-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sasquatch

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

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PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

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Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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PETE THE KITTY'S FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL
by Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

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I LOVE PETE THE KITTY
by James Dean & Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

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TOOL SCHOOL
by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)