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THE STARING CONTEST

Name: THE STARING CONTEST
Author: Nicholas Solis
ISBN: 978-1-4413-3506-7

by Nicholas Solis ; illustrated by Nicholas Solis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 2020

Solis’ cocky contestant will contribute to many a reddened eyeball.

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Who’s the baddest? Can your eyes do a diagonal split?

Maybe they can master the dreaded “criss-cross”? Or how about beadily staring “all…day…LONG!” Go ahead, take a breath—you’ll need it. Remember, no cheating and no tricks—you’ll have to win this contest fair and square. Burning eyes, bathroom breaks, itchy eyelids, or getting tired are no excuses! The staring-contest champion challenges “you” to take the dare—who will win the no-blink throwdown??? Solis’ metafictive game of chicken scorns all thought of surrender. Drawing on a generous supply of bravado, the pretentious protagonist pulls no punches. Even in defeat, the relentless eyes make it a best two out of three. With nothing more than stark white backgrounds, bold black circles with one black dot apiece within them, and two scraggily black lines, defiance blazes forth from the pages. The scribbles transform into acrobatic eyebrows. The black circles collapse, elongate, and dance asymmetrically across an invisible face. The black dots, corralled by relentless rings of stygian darkness, seem to be able to move freely, independent of each other. This minimalist incitement to ocular hijinks joins the ranks of Amy Krouse Rosenthal and David Roberts’ sleep anarchists’ manifesto, Don’t Blink (2018), and Tom Booth’s animal flash-mob’s challenge, also called Don’t Blink (2017).

Solis’ cocky contestant will contribute to many a reddened eyeball. (Picture book. 4-10)

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-4413-3506-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Peter Pauper Press

Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
MY TOWN / MI PUEBLO
by Nicholas Solis ; illustrated by Luisa Uribe

- BOOK REVIEW
THE COLOR COLLECTOR
by Nicholas Solis ; illustrated by Renia Metallinou

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)