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HOW TO EAT AN AIRPLANE

Name: HOW TO EAT AN AIRPLANE
Author: Peter Pearson
ISBN: 978-0-06-232062-9

From the Bad Idea Book Club series

by Peter Pearson ; illustrated by Mircea Catusanu ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 24, 2016

This series opener is a successful combination of etiquette book and airplane cookery: who’d have thunk it? (Informational...

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A man ate an airplane. This is true. Though this is not his story, Pearson uses it to ground a surprisingly informative book about the technology (and etiquette).

As Pearson explains at the closure of this crazy business, a gentleman by the name of Michel Lotito ate a Cessna 150, which, granted, is not a Boeing 747, but even so....In the book proper he gives this curious act a suitable touch of insanity, graced with Emily Post–like commands on the proper etiquette of airplane-eating. The best venue is a party (for a little help from your friends). Your invitees must be sent tickets of invitation and then met at the gate. Serve jet-fuel aperitifs to wash down the crunchy mechanical canapes. Pearson tosses in some humdinger words—aileron, fuselage, the Tardiness Toast: "To friends and clocks and paradox. / I'm usually on time. Oops"—but he makes them go down even easier than Cessna 150 parts. Meanwhile, Catusanu's artwork is full of hard-candy color, inviting and playful, with a relatively diverse cast of human characters among the partygoers and even a dog and a cat. Even the "Airplane Facts" at the end of the book are designed to both amuse and instruct. "Planes are heavy. Just the paint on a commercial airliner weighs between 400 and 1,000 pounds!"

This series opener is a successful combination of etiquette book and airplane cookery: who’d have thunk it? (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 24, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-232062-9

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO WALK A DUMP TRUCK
by Peter Pearson ; illustrated by Mircea Catusanu

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THE PUMPKIN THIEF

From the Leaf Thief series

by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2026

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.

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Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.

Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 28, 2026

ISBN: 9781464268076

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SUN THIEF
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SNOW THIEF
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BISON AND THE BUTTERFLY
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nancy Leschnikoff

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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)