A fun choice for chapter-book readers who like legendary creatures.
The students of Class 4A end up in a vampire’s castle during a magical field trip.
Class 4A is no ordinary classroom. With Ms. Frogbottom and her magic map, there is never a dull moment. As this adventure opens, the kids are enjoying a night at science camp when a bat flies overhead. As the conversation inevitably turns to vampire bats and vampires, Ms. Frogbottom takes out her magic map to whisk them away on a memorable field trip. In a blink of an eye, the students find themselves in Transylvania. While at a cafe, they meet the groundskeeper of Bran Castle, the inspiration for the castle in Dracula. He offers them a special tour of the castle, which Ms. Frogbottom gladly accepts. Soon the kids meet Mr. Liliac, master of the castle, and that’s when things get really weird. Emma swears Mr. Liliac is a vampire because he had no reflection in the mirror—and then Ms. Frogbottom disappears….Narrated by fact-loving student Sofia, this third series installment reads like a chapter-book version of the Magic School Bus, introducing geography via local legends. More silly than scary, the story is a mixture of history, magic, and adventure. Laced throughout the text are both boxes with fast facts and black-and-white images. The students appear to be of different races, and Ms. Frogbottom is a woman of color.
A fun choice for chapter-book readers who like legendary creatures. (glossary) (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5403-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
No need to be afraid of monsters after reading this sweet and unusual friendship story.
A boy discovers that monsters are real—and that one lives under his bed.
The monster and the boy—no names given—share a bedroom, but they have never met. The monster is nocturnal and has lived under the boy’s bed for many years; he knows the sound of the boy’s voice and loves the smell of his dirty socks. One night the boy’s mother reads her son a book about monsters, and she tells him that there is no such thing as monsters. Knowing this is untrue, the monster decides to introduce himself. Predictably, this doesn’t go as well as the monster expects, and when the boy screams, the monster swallows him in a panic. This is distressing for both the monster (who just lost his only friend) and the boy (who now finds himself trapped inside a stomach). Eventually the monster coughs the boy out—only to discover the boy is now grasshopper-sized. Humor ensues. In archly amusing fashion, the author breaks the fourth wall—this is marked by teal-colored page backgrounds—reassuring readers during potentially scary parts of the book, filling in background details, or collegially including them in aspects of the storytelling. Teal-flecked grayscale cartoons appear on almost every page, making this a solid choice for new independent readers. As depicted on the cover, the boy has tightly coiled brown curls and pink skin.
No need to be afraid of monsters after reading this sweet and unusual friendship story. (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21783-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Series fans won’t be disappointed, but young readers and listeners who know only the original ditty may find this a touch...
Having eaten pretty much everything on land in 13 previous versions of the classic song, Colandro’s capaciously stomached oldster goes to sea.
Once again the original cumulative rhyme’s naturalistic aspects are dispensed with, so that not only doesn’t the old lady die, but neither do any of the creatures she consumes. Instead, the titular shark “left no mark,” a squid follows down the hatch to “float with the shark,” a fish to “dance with the squid,” an eel to “brighten the fish” (with “fluorescent light!” as a subsequent line explains), and so on—until at the end it’s revealed to be all pretending anyway on a visit to an aquarium. Likewise, though Lee outfits the bespectacled binge-eater with a finny tail and the requisite bra for most of the extended episode, she regains human feet and garb at the end. In the illustrations, the old lady and one of the two children who accompany her are pink-skinned; the other has frizzy hair and an amber complexion. A set of nature notes on the featured victims and a nautical seek-and-find that will send viewers back to the earlier pictures modestly enhance this latest iteration.
Series fans won’t be disappointed, but young readers and listeners who know only the original ditty may find this a touch bland. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-12993-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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