A quirky and ingenious deep-sea dive into an unlikely friendship between two enchanting outsiders.
A betta fish secretly longs for friendship in Schneider’s illustrated children’s book.
Arty is a purple betta (also known as a Siamese fighting fish) who feels the weight of always having to be a fighter. It’s a lonely life when other fish are always afraid of you. Before the beginning of the story, Arty asks the reader, “Hello. Can I ask you something? Did you ever have a wish, a secret wish, that you know you shouldn’t wish, but you just do?” Arty reveals some secret thoughts of his own: Nobody likes him, he’s alone, and he’s always felt different. At betta school, all of the other fish seem content to fight all the time and be aggressive warriors, but bettas are also curious by nature, and Arty wants a friend. He decides to go in search of the wise old Snail for advice. Along the way, he meets a sea slug and, being a betta, squashes him. But then Arty apologizes, and the sea slug’s curiosity is piqued: “He said sorry?! This is not how bettas act!” Intrigued, the sea slug follows Arty, and when a hungry red piranha attacks the betta, the sea slug saves Arty’s life. To Arty’s surprise, the sea slug becomes his friend. Schneider’s comic-book illustrations depict foamy watercolor seascapes; the characters are mostly rendered in muted block colors with bold black pen outlines that make their features pop. The book uses classic comic framing—split panels on many pages and bold thought, speech, and action bubbles. Diverting little details, like exclamation and question marks, musical notes, and captions (like “DANCE PARTY!” when Arty is imagining what friendship must be like) add texture to an already spellbinding read. The growing friendship between Arty and the slug is dynamic—sometimes funny, droll, or sarcastic, sometimes sweet and sentimental. The buoyant prose keeps the pace up even when Arty is having his existential crisis, and the slug (who eventually settles on the name Slug), with his googly eyes and placid expression, makes for a most charming foil.
A quirky and ingenious deep-sea dive into an unlikely friendship between two enchanting outsiders. (Ages: 4-12, picture book, comic book)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781957656595
Page Count: 102
Publisher: Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C.
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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