A hilarious romp featuring a small wild thing with a big, big personality.
“I am deeply, deeply misunderstood,” declares a child who plainly has really saintly parents.
Positive that they are actually a princess, a child sees nothing amiss in scribbling down the stairway wall with a crayon, harnessing their baby brother to pull a royal wagon, and ignoring instructions to clean their room—or, for that matter, wearing a sticky, hollowed-out pineapple top as a crown and inviting a growing swarm of buzzing flies (or “subjects”) to gather. Paired with a humorous declamatory monologue, Hahn’s appealing watercolor scenes follow a small, scowling, light-skinned child with an outsize gift for making fantastic messes, from garbage-strewn bedroom to a kitchen turned utterly topsy-turvy and then, perhaps at the strong, if unmentioned, invitation of an unseen parent, outdoors. Having wielded a fly swatter against some of their more rambunctious “subjects” and sensing rebellion in the ranks, the protagonist at last decides it’s time for an upgrade to a new and, readers will likely agree, more suitable role: warrior queen! (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A hilarious romp featuring a small wild thing with a big, big personality. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-79836-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
While simplistic, it’s a serviceable starter for discussions of spectrum disorders with younger neurotypical audiences.
Isaac explains why he wears a mask and cape and sometimes has special needs.
Packaged between rainbow-striped endpapers, this purposeful monologue offers a mix of positive takes—“I’ve got special superpowers that make me slightly different from my brother and the other kids at school”—and coping strategies. Among these latter are looking at foreheads rather than directly at eyes, which makes him “feel scared,” and keeping personal comments “inside my head so that I don’t upset people.” In the big, simple illustrations, Walsh gives Isaac uniformly smiling pets and peers for company, and she shows him less than cheerful only once, when the buzzing of fluorescent lights “makes my ears really hurt.” At the end he explains that he has Asperger’s, “which is a kind of autism,” and closes by affirming that his brother understands him, “and now you do too!” That may be overstating the case, but Isaac comes off as less inscrutable than the children in Gail Watts’ Kevin Thinks (2012) or Davene Fahy and Carol Inouye’s Anthony Best (2013). That the book is aimed not at children on the spectrum but at their peers is made explicit in a jacket-flap note from the author, whose son has Asperger’s.
While simplistic, it’s a serviceable starter for discussions of spectrum disorders with younger neurotypical audiences. (URL list) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8121-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bathtub fun, warm father-daughter interaction, a bit of exposure to sea life…and opportunities aplenty for counting, too.
Young Leanne’s bathtime turns anything but boring once her father starts bringing in tub buddies from the sea.
Leanne’s continuing complaints that there’s nothing to play with send her father scampering outside to bring back one turtle, two eels, three clownfish, and so on. But by the time 10 “octopi” have been wedged in, it’s time to think outside the tub. So down to the shore go dad and daughter (both white): “The waves were wonderful. The sun was superb. The sand was sublime. Leanne said, ‘A sea bath is the most fun of all!’ ” Delisle renders both human and animal figures in her colorful, increasingly crowded cartoon scenes with reasonable accuracy (Leanne is bare, but she is artfully fig-leafed throughout) and great animation. Let carping critics complain about the hazards of bathing with sea urchins and live fish, not to mention the whole salt water–vs.-fresh situation—young viewers will see the animals enjoying themselves as much as Leanne and her father are, laugh at the octopus draped over the toilet reading “The Little Mermaid” and other visual jokes, and take pleasure in the whole silly, playful premise. And to quell any lingering worries, a final wordless scene shows the animals all scurrying back to the sea.
Bathtub fun, warm father-daughter interaction, a bit of exposure to sea life…and opportunities aplenty for counting, too. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-927485-92-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
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