A fun and enjoyable gingerbread tale with striking illustrations.
A persistent fox tries to re-create the perfect gingerbread recipe in this debut illustrated children’s book.
It isn’t easy making gingerbread. Fox once ate the most scrumptious, delectable gingerbread cookies, but the older woman and man don’t make them anymore, and he has been racking his brain for the right recipe ever since. He tries and tries but can never seem to get the correct combination of ingredients together. It isn’t until he has a dream that sparks inspiration for a further batch of cookies that he finally succeeds. But all is not as he hoped: His gingerbread twins, Gavin and Greyson, jump right off his cookie sheet and make a break for it. Chanting “We’ll run double fast, / with gigantic grins. / You can’t catch us, / we’re the gingerbread twins!” Gavin and Greyson escape to a nearby town, first hiding in a bakery before running to the park. Fox is hot on their trail, though, and he may just be able to catch them. Readers will love how all the twists and turns of this story keep them on their toes. The bright, warm illustrations by Scebold bring depth and movement that take the tale to the next level, integrating with the text through speech bubbles inspired by graphic novels. Although it isn’t clear why only some speech is in bubbles while lines like most of those belonging to the gingerbread twins and Fox’s “Where could they be?” are integrated into the text, the format isn’t hard to follow. The same is true for rhyme. Most of the lines, mainly belonging to Fox, are rhymed but not all, and the transition is abrupt. But Fox’s rhythmic baking mantra is cute and simple and could be used to create a call-and-response between storyteller and audience in a read-aloud situation. The tale’s end seems sudden, perhaps because it is a shame to leave Hayes’ characters and Scebold’s images behind. This story is an engaging addition to the genre of runaway gingerbread fairy tales that has been popular for almost 150 years.
A fun and enjoyable gingerbread tale with striking illustrations.Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73775-496-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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