As (at 9) the youngest contender to date for an Academy Award best actress prize, Wallis narrates a story well worth reading...
Few brown girls (and even few brown women) have ever been able to tell a story like this.
Child star Wallis, best known for her debut acting role as the indomitable Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild and co-starring with Jamie Foxx in the 2014 version of the blockbuster musical Annie, recounts the glamourous night she and her mother spent at the Academy Awards ceremony. The African-American protagonist starts the day by waking up early and “tap, tap, tapping” around the house in her sparkly, new blue shoes, then waking up her siblings to make sure they share in her excitement. After the family enjoys a pancake breakfast, a stylist comes to give Quvenzhané a fabulous hairdo (about which her older brother teases her), and then her mother helps her don a new blue dress. An impressive limousine transports mother and daughter to the Academy Awards, and all goes well until Quvenzhané steps out of the car and falls, face first, onto the red carpet. Thinking of daddy helps her get over the embarrassment and move on to the main event. Expressively illustrated with Brantley-Newton’s characteristically upbeat illustrations, the book exudes positivity (“I don’t win, but Mama and I have ice cream sundaes just the same”) and excitement and tells a unique story.
As (at 9) the youngest contender to date for an Academy Award best actress prize, Wallis narrates a story well worth reading and sharing . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5880-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the...
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike.
Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end.
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87083-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Ready to fight boredom in a single bound, at least for a few minutes.
A small blond boy describes the many ways his nebbishy dad is a superhero.
From super snoring to super breakfasts (“toast with chocolate, and fruit, ice cream, and cake!”), this dad makes everything fun, playing dinosaurs, lifting and carrying his son, and building him an amazing (but rickety) wooden castle (not without a thumb injury, though, but he meant to do that!). These things might not seem like superhero deeds to most readers, and the narrator sees that question coming. He explains about the noises he hears at night in his room and how his dad comes in to rescue him with the flick of a light switch and his presence. “ ‘Superhero Dad,’ I say, / ‘you are the best by miles!’ / My dad says, / ‘I’m no Superhero,’ / then he stops and smiles. / ‘But I know a Superhero / who is brave and kind and fun. Who is it? // Why, it’s you! You are my SUPERHERO SON!’ ” It’s a sweet concept, but the execution is a little off. Knapman’s rhythm sometimes stumbles in his rhyming verses. Berger’s digital illustrations are filled with the bright colors that scream comics, though there aren’t as many sound effect balloons as one might expect from a superhero story. Both characters are white.
Ready to fight boredom in a single bound, at least for a few minutes. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8657-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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