Dedicated to the people who have made them who they are, Maloney and Zekauskas’s (Belly Button Boy, 2000, etc) latest offering celebrates the fact that there is “. . . a little bit of everybody in everybody.” From his birth, no one saw Percival Puddicombe as himself. His mother looked at him and saw her nose, his father saw his eyes, and his relatives each claimed they saw their own features in him. Even Percival couldn’t see anything else. When he looked in the mirror, a crowd of relatives stared back at him. Then, one day, his mother’s nose, his father’s eyes, and all of his relatives’ body parts disappeared, along with Percival, to his grandparents’ house where he was always just Percival. There he learns the important lesson that he is a part of everyone who has come before . . . but that he will also always be his own special person. And when he returns with the family photo album, everyone finds a little bit of themselves in its pages . . . literally. The illustrations are sure to appeal to youngsters’ funny bones, especially when the body parts start disappearing! Skinny, knobby-kneed figures sport dotted or striped stockings and ties and wide-eyed expressions of surprise, even his grandmother. Adult readers are sure to chuckle over the details tucked in for their amusement (pay special attention to his uncle’s bookcase). With its humor and gentle message of genetics, this is a story to be shared whenever the family photos get pulled off the shelf. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8037-2545-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
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
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