Rossiter’s (The Way Home, 1999, etc.) story of a family’s day in the sugar bush is a bit too solemn for the occasion, and there is a static quality to the artwork that drains much of the life out of the elemental act of sugaring. Seth and Ethan eagerly announce that it looks like sap-gathering weather to their mother one March evening, though the boys’ gestures in the accompanying illustration look like they have been carved from stone. As the boys try to crank up the excitement, their mother keeps saying things like “We’ll see” and “Whoa! Food first,” tamping any electricity that might begin to flow. The narrative crawls at the same speed as the tractor making its way through the maple trees: “Mom poured the contents into the holding tank. Dad was next, emptying his bucket from the other side of the trailer.” So it goes, all the day long, to end upon this upbeat note: “She had a thermos of coffee tucked under her arm, since she and Dad would be up most of the night tending the syrup.” Pass the oxygen. Fun is an alien concept to this event, where the boys are dutiful day laborers, their payoff a snow cone and their parents’ approval. They ought to organize and demand a minimum wage. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-525-46910-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2002
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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Girl power abounds in this book about coding that introduces young readers to the world of programming while offering them hands-on activities via a companion app.
In this title that was first introduced as a customizable, personalized print-on-demand product, Rox has a superpower. Using code, she programs toy robots that can do things like make broccoli disappear—or mischief. When Dad tells Rox to clean her room, she quickly thinks up a bot that will do it for her, writing code that instructs her bot to use artificial intelligence to sort objects by color and type. Though Rox knows that there’s a high potential for her creation to rebel, the perks outweigh any potential adverse effects. Rox’s robot has her room neat and tidy in no time—and then the entire home. Chorebot’s AI allows it to keep learning, and it seems Chorebot can do no wrong until the robot decides to rearrange the entire city (both buildings and people) by type, style, and gender. Chorebot goes “out of his artificial mind!” Rox must now stop her creation…without the assistance of the internet. The artwork, styled in the tradition of popular superhero series, is peppy and colorful, and it depicts Rox as an adorable black girl donning a black bomber jacket and a pink tutu. A companion app (not available for review) allows readers to create a bot of their own.
Informative, empowering, and fun. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-57687-899-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: POW!
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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