Young Owen has a thing for dragons, arranging a tableau of them around his morning oatmeal. He even wears a big green dragon head (with drooping red tongue) “almost always.” One morning, Owen nudges his mom, Bea, out of bed and discovers she’s turned into a big pink dragon (the same bright pink as her housecoat). Since she’s forgotten everything she knows, roles get reversed as Owen prepares breakfast and decides to take the bewildered Bea to the hospital. On the way, they stop at the zoo, where they get into a fracas with a reptile house worker. More problems ensue at the park and at the ice cream truck, Mom breathing fire and eating bugs all the while. Finally, Owen takes mom to see grandma, who has a long gray braid and peace sign earrings. She calmly advises that it’ll probably wear off in a few days . . . and it does. Mischievous touches in Lindenbaum’s watercolor illustrations perfectly match her shrewd fable, which seems to spring from the mind of her young hero. Some moms will understand perfectly. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 91-29-66548-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: R&S/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sincere and wholehearted.
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The NBA star offers a poem that encourages curiosity, integrity, compassion, courage, and self-forgiveness.
James makes his debut as a children’s author with a motivational poem touting life habits that children should strive for. In the first-person narration, he provides young readers with foundational self-esteem encouragement layered within basketball descriptions: “I promise to run full court and show up each time / to get right back up and let my magic shine.” While the verse is nothing particularly artful, it is heartfelt, and in her illustrations, Mata offers attention-grabbing illustrations of a diverse and enthusiastic group of children. Scenes vary, including classrooms hung with student artwork, an asphalt playground where kids jump double Dutch, and a gym populated with pint-sized basketball players, all clearly part of one bustling neighborhood. Her artistry brings black and brown joy to the forefront of each page. These children evince equal joy in learning and in play. One particularly touching double-page spread depicts two vignettes of a pair of black children, possibly siblings; in one, they cuddle comfortably together, and in the other, the older gives the younger a playful noogie. Adults will appreciate the closing checklist of promises, which emphasize active engagement with school. A closing note very generally introduces principles that underlie the Lebron James Family Foundation’s I Promise School (in Akron, Ohio). (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 15% of actual size.)
Sincere and wholehearted. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-297106-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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SEEN & HEARD
Patricia has an older brother who looks "like a weasel with glasses," but that's just for starters. The real problem with him — besides his red wiry hair and his freckles — is that he's always telling her he can do everything better than she can. He can pick more blackberries, he can eat more rhubarb without puckering; he can run faster, climb higher, burp louder, and spit farther. Worst of all, he's four years older, "always has been and always will be." When Patricia's babushka — her grandmother — teaches her how to wish on a falling star, Patricia wishes to do something better than he does. She gets her wish and winds up seeing a different side of her brother as well. Polacco's (Babushka Baba Yaga, 1993, etc.; Pink and Say, see below) text is smooth, effortless, and completely natural-sounding. Her drawings are funny and vivacious — as usual, her characters are drawn with wonderful facial expressions and limbs akimbo. She has the ability to transport you to her settings — in this case, to a Michigan farm where you can practically feel the sun and smell the pies baking. Polacco has proved time and again that she is masterful both as illustrator and storyteller, and this book is no exception. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-72751-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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