by Natasha Parsakia illustrated by Dwight Nacaytuna ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
This work, despite some flaws, offers kids with sensory difficulties useful strategies.
An illustrated children’s book that suggests coping mechanisms, through the use of “social stories,” for youngsters on the autism spectrum or who have sensory processing disorders.
In her work over the last 16 years, Parsakia, a child behavioral specialist, has found that “social stories,” first developed by consultant Carol Gray in 1991, are “incredibly helpful” in getting autistic children “to better understand the feelings and needs of others; while meeting their own specific needs, and developing ‘scripts’ that they can adopt and reproduce in similar social circumstances.” Social stories help improve social skills by presenting short scenarios of challenging situations. In her debut book, aimed at children ages 3 to 7 (or older, if appropriate), Parsakia focuses on the five senses, as sensory processing disorders are common problems among her clients. In simple language, she explains the senses and the purposes they serve, and through the perspective of a child, she points out that although senses can be painful, they “are good for me. They help me learn about things.” Each social story offers observations, outside perspectives, and possible positive responses to problems. In a story about the sense of hearing, for example, Parsakia’s child narrator, a small blond boy, notices that “When I go to the bathroom, the toilet flushing hurts my ears.” He also notices that other people don’t have the same reaction: “But, my friends don’t seem upset like me….If I scream, my friends might be confused.” Useful strategies to address the problem include “leave the bathroom quickly and not hear the horrible sound anymore” or “count quietly in my head without talking.” However, Parsakia leaves out some classic elements of the social story, including reassuring affirmative sentences, such as “That’s okay” or “This is important,” or cooperative sentences that show how adults or teachers can help. Also, the book lacks diversity in its storytelling and in Nacaytuna’s (Abolonia Twitt and the Toasted Cheese Sandwich, 2016, etc.) full-color illustrations; including both genders, other races, and more types from the autism spectrum might have allowed more children to see themselves in these stories. Also, the book’s punctuation could have used a cleanup.
This work, despite some flaws, offers kids with sensory difficulties useful strategies.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Jeff Kinney ; illustrated by Jeff Kinney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 2019
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
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SEEN & HEARD
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 2014
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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