The kind of big-hearted fun that may lose its element of surprise, but not its power to please young readers.
A girl with strange powers and a subversive sense of humor bedevils the epic adventures of a young knight-aspirant and his Bigfoot sidekick.
He might be wearing a colander on his head, but this contemporary boy-knight is aching for action, some real knightly questing. With the appearance of the Animal Princess, his wish seems to be on the verge of coming true: She has a "totally epic quest for two knights" to dispense. The boy and his friend, who resembles Sasquatch, are game. There follows three quick adventures that may find some echoes for older readers—the lion and the mouse, the grail quest—which all end with the princess pulling the rug out from under the knight. The tales are loopily involving, allowing both the boy and the girl to play big parts, with humor that comes in broad strokes that Naujokaitis vividly paints on the faces of the actors. The panels in general have an appealingly heightened sense of emotion, with terrific facial expressions and an unassuming sophistication in coloration, though both the text and the graphics remain true to a focus on fundamentals.
The kind of big-hearted fun that may lose its element of surprise, but not its power to please young readers. (Graphic picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60905-099-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Apple
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A hilarious but enlightening guide to the online world—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
A craving for the latest tech leads to cat-astrophe in this new addition to the Bad Kitty series.
With her heart set on owning a cellphone, anthropomorphic house cat Kitty plows through three solid months of chores without complaining before her owners reluctantly grant her fervent wish. Then things go rapidly downhill. She becomes obsessed with violent mobile games, gets catfished (no pun intended), divulges too much personal information online, becomes consumed with rage at cyberbullies, and grows listless from excessive screen time. Only after the intervention of a Sphynx cat named Strange Kitty and a monthlong technology fast enforced by her owners does Kitty come to understand that while smartphones are fun, they can also be a serious distraction from real life and true friends. Using a digestible graphic-novel format, the book tackles internet safety and digital media literacy with purr-fect aplomb. The “Uncle Murray’s Fun Facts” section serves as a deep dive into the differences between facts and opinions, and many of Kitty’s quirky feline behaviors ring true. It’s unfortunate that the word lame—a disability-related term with negative connotations—is used by the internet trolls who deride the video Kitty makes and posts on “ViewTube.” Occasional misstep aside, Kitty’s tribulations provide ample fodder for this instructive and amusing tale.
A hilarious but enlightening guide to the online world—the good, the bad, and the ugly. (Graphic novel. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-74996-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Simple text, short chapters, and plenty of illustrations will appeal to emerging readers who prefer just a little shiver...
What happens if you move to a new town and your house is haunted? Andres is about to find out!
Andres Miedoso—his last name means “fearful” in Spanish—is “definitely not the coolest and bravest kid in the world.” In fact, Andres likes normal-boring and understands normal-boring, because he is normal-boring. But when the brown-skinned, curly haired Latino child and his family move to Kersville, he finds out his new home is anything but normal-boring. Fortunately, his next-door neighbor, a black boy named Desmond Cole who is the same age as Andres, is “the coolest, bravest kid in the world.” Desmond’s business as stated on his business card is “Ghost Patrol.” How lucky should a boy feel to live in a haunted house? Very—if you’re Desmond. Not so lucky if you’re Andres. But when the ghost eats a lasagna that makes him sick and tells them he’s been moving from house to house, Andres feels sorry and invites the ghost to stay as long as he promises “not to do any spooky stuff.” A deal is struck, a friendship is born, and a new series for chapter-book readers gets off to a good start.
Simple text, short chapters, and plenty of illustrations will appeal to emerging readers who prefer just a little shiver with their story—and to other readers too. (Suspense. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1039-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
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