More premise than plot, but it’s funny enough to keep fledgling readers turning pages.
When Logan Applebaum's mother sends him to school with the android "cousin" she's invented, the white boy finds it difficult to keep Java's manufactured identity a secret.
That’s the intriguing idea behind a new series of short chapter books aimed at primary grade readers. Here, a thin plot centers on the upcoming science fair. Logan hopes Java (Jacob Alexander Victor Applebaum) will help him win a prize, but the android joins a different team. Character development starts promisingly, with Logan testing the flavors of different colors of his cereal, but then fizzles, as Logan proves more interested in magic than science and most interested in besting the Silverspoon twins. There’s no indication of racial diversity in the text, but the black-and-white illustrations do suggest different color shades among his classmates and teacher. Much of the humor comes from Java's Amelia Bedelia–like inability to understand figures of speech. (Early in the story he warms Logan’s "cold feet" with a blanket.) There’s not much suspense, but the narrative winds up with an explosive climax, and directions for a potato battery are included. Clocking in at under 100 pages, this series opener has a simultaneously published sequel (Soccer Shocker), with a third scheduled for next spring.
More premise than plot, but it’s funny enough to keep fledgling readers turning pages. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5107-1018-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names...
A lad finds a big red dragon in his basement and wisely seeks expert advice about its care and feeding in this epistolary episode.
Young Alexander’s missives (there are no cellphones, nor parents, in sight) are mostly paraphrased rather than shown, but each response comes as a small note folded into a pocket that’s been printed and shaped like an envelope: “Douse it in water right away!” writes panic-stricken fire chief H.Y. Drant; find it a large house or castle, advises B. East of World Animal Welfare; “fatten it up,” suggests Angus Teak the butcher (“Look forward to [eating, scratched out] meeting your dragon”) with sinister relish. Boy and dragon have wonderful times together, but the ultimate realization that dragons really don’t make good pets leads the narrator to follow the written advice of best friend Hillary (“the wisest person I knew”) and set it free. The later arrival of a slightly burned picture postcard in the “post” reassures him that the dragon won’t be forgetting to keep in touch. The human figures in Yarlett’s cartoon illustrations are either white or have their heads cut off at the page top. With the exception of the pasted-on postcard from the dragon at the end, all of the correspondence is removable and thereby losable.
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names add some appeal. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-818-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
