Kids’ imaginations can find stories in better places than this.
A young boy who vexes his teacher with his doodling proves the value of stories.
Bored in the back row among robotically posed classmates who are diverse racially if not in their facial expressions, Nick turns his imagination loose and doodles, quickly losing track of what he should be doing and attracting the teacher’s ire. “Stay inside not outside the lines, Nicholas. / Don’t doodle or scribble. Don’t make such a fuss. / Just color the pictures. They’re simple and plain.” But Nick can’t rein in his doodlings, and the teacher finally puts him on the spot to draw and tell a tale for the whole class. Daunted at first, he quickly spins a tale that not only enraptures his classmates, but wins over his teacher: “I didn’t know doodles / had stories that hid / outside all those lines / till I saw what you did.” And the class spends the rest of the day drawing and spinning stories of their own. “And Nicholas, well—do you know what he did? / He showed everyone where the best stories hid.” Readers may be befuddled at this declaration, as stories’ hiding places are certainly not clear from either the text or the simplistic cartoon illustrations. Nick is white; his anti–role model of a teacher has very light brown skin and glasses.
Kids’ imaginations can find stories in better places than this. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5064-5401-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beaming Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina...
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up.
Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields.
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
Donut miss this delightful diversion.
Squirrel pals go on a stealth mission to procure much-desired donuts in this charming intermediate graphic novel.
Norma and Belly are two brown squirrels who love tasty treats! When Norma burns their pancakes one morning, the two discover something even more exciting: a food truck dedicated exclusively to donuts! Determined to bring a sweet treat back for themselves and their squirrel friends, they approach the donut maker hoping to trade chestnuts for donuts only to be spritzed with water and shooed away. Undeterred, the duo recruit the bespectacled squirrel Gramps and Little Bee, a short squirrel whose profile looks like the letter B, for an incognito mission to steal the donuts they long for. They’ll have to overcome their small stature, an overenthusiastic donut machine, and their potential discovery by the donut maker in order to procure their tasty treats. A happy ending involving a new squirrel-invented donut flavor reassures readers that the owner of the donut truck doesn’t hold a grudge. Norma is a go-getter; her triangular-shaped head and body reflect her willingness to be a bit sharp to get the job done. Belly, thimble-shaped, is optimistic and conflict-averse. A natural color palette and watercolors that comfortably bleed outside thick black lines are fitting for this soft story and let the characters and dialogue shine.
Donut miss this delightful diversion. (Graphic fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984895-83-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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