A traditional hero gets a courageous, compassionate makeover in this pleasing, well-illustrated story.
In a twist on a familiar fairy tale, Jack rescues the bean crop and a sad Giant in this children’s book.
Young Jack Garbanzo lives with his parents. They’re farmers, but Jack prefers carpentry. The Garbanzos’ field of magical beanstalks has lost its enchantment and turned spindly ever since a green-skinned, droopy-eyed young Giant slipped from his cloud and fell into town. Ostracized and mocked, he’s been hiding in the bean field, where he sobs salty tears of misery every night. With the family’s bean harvest threatened, Jack ventures out one night to ask the Giant why he’s crying. He explains that “I’m a nice guy...well, Giant. I miss my mom, dad, and my cat, Puss ’N Boots.” He regrets ruining the crops but can’t go home now by climbing a beanstalk; the weakened plants won’t support his weight. Taking pity on the unfairly maligned Giant, Jack uses his woodworking skills to build a huge spiral staircase surrounding the tallest stalk. As he’s working, the townspeople come to appreciate the friendly Giant, and everyone says an affectionate goodbye when he’s finally able to climb home. Howell keeps her anti-bullying fable from becoming too preachy or heavy-handed, explaining simply that the townsfolk “did not like the clumsy Giant child who didn’t look like them.” Humor, often bean-themed, also uplifts the tale, as with the Garbanzos living in the town of Pinto. Gledhill’s well-composed, richly colored illustrations add another layer of whimsy through details such as fairies teasing the Giant’s pet frog. The mix of classic fairy-tale elements with an updated sensibility works well, and Jack is an appealingly brave and kindhearted hero, sneaking out in the middle of the night to visit the Giant everyone else fears or scorns.
A traditional hero gets a courageous, compassionate makeover in this pleasing, well-illustrated story.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64764-667-7
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that.
Beatrice Zinker is a kinder, gentler Judy Moody.
Beatrice doesn’t want to be fit in a box. Her first word was “WOW,” not “Mom.” She does her best thinking upside down and prefers to dress like a ninja. Like Judy Moody, she has patient parents and a somewhat annoying younger brother. (She also has a perfectly ordinary older sister.) Beatrice spends all summer planning a top-secret spy operation complete with secret codes and a secret language (pig Latin). But on the first day of third grade, her best friend, Lenny (short for Eleanor), shows up in a dress, with a new friend who wants to play veterinarian at recess. Beatrice, essentially a kind if somewhat quirky kid, struggles to see the upside of the situation and ends up with two friends instead of one. Line drawings on almost every spread add to the humor and make the book accessible to readers who might otherwise balk at its 160 pages. Thankfully, the rhymes in the text do not continue past the first chapter. Children will enjoy the frequent puns and Beatrice’s preference for climbing trees and hanging upside down. The story drifts dangerously close to pedantry when Beatrice asks for advice from a grandmotherly neighbor but is saved by likable characters and upside-down cake. Beatrice seems to be white; Lenny’s surname, Santos, suggests that she may be Latina; their school is a diverse one.
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that. (Fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-6738-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.
When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.
As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
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