An appealing read-aloud tale about a duo’s adventures that would benefit from enhanced illustrations and timing.
A picture book chronicles a day with a boy and his grandfather full of fun and minor mishaps.
Joey and his grandfather happily spend an active day together inside Grandpa’s house and at various places nearby. They feed the fish, read together, cook pancakes, ride in Grandpa’s truck to the grocery store, eat lunch, and go fishing. Each activity takes place with “one small problem.” Over and over again, Grandpa manages to lose his glasses (“When Joey wanted Grandpa to read a book with him, Grandpa’s glasses were missing. Grandpa looked under the couch and under the cushions and under the rug, but he couldn’t find his glasses”). He loses them in the fish tank, the pancake batter, the grocery bag, and the freezer. Joey manages to find them every time, and Grandpa repeats some variation of “Well, get a load of that...How did they get in there?” Sharp-eyed Joey, always one step ahead of his absentminded grandfather, even proposes a solution—putting a string on the glasses and tying it to Grandpa’s pocket. But in the final panel, foolish Grandpa, after fishing with Joey at a lake, has his glasses with him but leaves his boots on the dock. The relationship of grandfather and grandson is heartwarming and charming, as is the concept of the youngster coming to the aid of his relative by finding his constantly misplaced glasses and coming up with a remedy. As a read-aloud story, the book by author Nichvolodoff (Cleo’s Treasure Hunt, 2016, etc.) and illustrator Paradero possesses tremendous potential for the young reader to participate by discovering the glasses in all the amusing spots and playing along. Unfortunately, both the volume’s timing and the illustrations work against the reader. For a young child to understand the problem and discover the glasses, the images need to accentuate the spectacles and allow the reader to see clearly what is going to happen to them. In most of the illustrations, the glasses are not prominent enough for a child to identify them. The reader only discovers after the fact that the glasses fall into the fish tank and the pancake batter. These situations offer great comic possibilities for a young child to witness these calamities about to occur and point them out.
An appealing read-aloud tale about a duo’s adventures that would benefit from enhanced illustrations and timing.Pub Date: May 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4907-5910-4
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Trafford
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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