Generally amusing, if readers can look past the only mildly critiqued focus on beauty.
The titular mermaid must ace a spelling test to get back on her swim team and in doing so learns a lesson about inner and outer beauty.
Mermaid Cora is great at singing, swimming, and splashing—but not so much at spelling, a subject in which she earns “a great big FISH (minus the ish)” on her report card. To help boost her scores, her mother gives her a diary, telling her it has a spell on it to compel her to write. Illustrating her difficulties, numerous words are misspelled, crossed out, and corrected. Cora has just made the junior ranks of the most glamorous swim team—the Singing Sirens—only to get booted for her spelling grade. (How these undersea swim teams compete and what they do—aside from swimming and looking pretty—is never made clear.) Her mother negotiates on her behalf, arriving at an agreement that if Cora aces the next spelling test, she can keep her spot. In writing about her undersea adventures, Cora ends up using her spelling words and learning them. In the end, Cora uncovers the nasty sides of her beautiful teammates and rival, and she decides to change her values. Light-skinned Cora is depicted as chubby and cartoon-cute, while other mermaids (including her best friend, who appears darker-skinned on the cover) appear conventionally “beautiful.”
Generally amusing, if readers can look past the only mildly critiqued focus on beauty. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91816-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Music takes center stage and bullies get properly pun-ished in this hearty and wholesome howl.
In this picture book from singer Parton and co-author Perl, a small French bulldog goes to Nashville, joins a band, fends off bullies, and meets one of the queens of country music.
Promising at the outset that this is just the first of a series of adventures starring her beloved “god-dog,” Parton goes on to hit all the conventional thematic notes. Inspired by musical dreams, Billy heads for Nashville. After a “ruff day” in which being scorned by big dogs for not being a “true muttropolitan” leaves him feeling “lower than a stick on the ground,” he eats some flowers, strums some tunes, forms a band with a trio of little dogs, and, after sending the big pooches packing, trots out a “pawsome” performance at the “Battle of the Bow-Wows.” And from there it’s on to the Grand Ole Opry to hear his big-haired favorite singer warble out lines from her song “Makin’ Fun Ain’t Funny,” about celebrating differences rather than mocking them. Haley slips those lines, along with references to “Jowlene” and “I will pawlways love you,” into painted scenes of an all-dog-or-Dolly cast set against swirls of music and simply drawn backdrops. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Music takes center stage and bullies get properly pun-ished in this hearty and wholesome howl. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780593661574
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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