A funny, pun-heavy title about finding your purpose by embracing your talents.
An errant button searches for a new purpose in life in this clever kids’ book from debut author/illustrator Olson and photographer Kester.
Olson chronicles the adventures of Norman, a red button with huge, illustrated eyes and copper-wire limbs. After Norman is pulled from a coat, he considers new jobs he might hold—a superhero, a photographer, a firefighter, a plumber, and a dog walker—before finally realizing that buttons are best at being attached to something else, like the nose of a teddy bear. The idea of a button fulfilling other jobs is humorous in itself; Olson’s illustrations take the joke to its fullest extent, with poor, flammable Norman running away from a campfire, for instance, or getting dragged through the mud at the end of a dog’s leash. Norman’s own button’s-eye-view photographs go unappreciated in the story itself, but the manipulated photos by Olson and Kester are sure to be a hit; the compositions highlight the silliness of each concept and reveal Norman to be a lovable hero. Olson’s short, accessible sentences, peppered with button-centric turns of phrase (“well-rounded individual,” “hanging on...by a thread”) will delight independent readers and adults reading to youngsters.
A funny, pun-heavy title about finding your purpose by embracing your talents.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73237-070-8
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Bellie Button Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
I really don't think this is a juvenile at all. But since it is being sold as such, I suppose it belongs here, for it is at this particular age that telling tall tales becomes a favorite sport. A small boy has promised not to tell lies. And this is the story of a story and how it grew. The underlying humor is quite adult.
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1937
ISBN: 0394844947
Page Count: -
Publisher: Vanguard
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1937
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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