A clever lesson about situational awareness and the value of reading a book before acting.
Poper (Randall and Randall, 2019, etc.) offers another science-based picture book about a pair of animals.
Porcupette the porcupine loves to read. But sticking his nose in a “very important book” could lead to trouble when Moppet, a fisher, starts hanging around. From Moppet’s introduction—“Pleased to eat you”—young readers will grasp the idea that this friendly-looking creature is actually out to get Porcupette. But while Moppet tries to interrupt Porcupette’s reading with his antics, the rodent continues to peruse his book, about fishers, until he gets to the most relevant information: They hunt porcupines. Luckily, Porcupette’s distraction doesn’t end badly; as it turns out, the book also explains that fishers need to hunt prickly porcupines from the front to avoid the quills, a fact Moppet had clearly never read. Though the tension of predator versus prey is present throughout this ode to reading, Moppet is so charming in his dialogue and in Young’s (Mason the Bull and the Magical Christmas Tree, 2018, etc.) pitch-perfect, anthropomorphic cartoon illustrations that readers won’t feel too frightened for Porcupette. Poper’s dialogue, interspersed with the text of Porcupette’s book, flows naturally, and despite the very factual tone of the science tidbits, the vocabulary is never too intimidating for newly independent readers. The design, which features various colored backgrounds behind pieces of text, neatly alerts the audience to who’s speaking.
A clever lesson about situational awareness and the value of reading a book before acting.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9814938-3-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Blue Whale Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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