Both old-fashioned and fresh-feeling, this book is thoroughly worthy of a shopping trip.
As comfortable as a Sunday afternoon with Grandma, Derby’s picture book sneaks a wee bit of financial literacy into her story of playtime and imagination.
Evie’s weekly shopping trip with Grandma is something special. Right away, young readers will see that Evie and Grandma are preparing for no ordinary trip to the market. “On Sunday night, after we put on our nightgowns, Grandma and I go shopping,” says Evie. Grandma dons her spiffy blue hat with the feather, and Evie grabs Grandma’s big, black purse, and then it’s time to shop. But their trip begins not in a taxi or walking through a town square. It begins in the comfort of Grandma’s big, comfy bed. Evie and Grandma break open the Sunday paper, pull out the sales ads, and begin. Simple phrasing, sparse and easy to read, and charmingly spare watercolor art help create a feeling that is at once realistic and fantastical. The shopping duo plunge headlong into the sales ads, choosing items from marked-down hams and sweet cherries to mustard; these two don’t dream big—they dream thrifty. Evie has stuffed Grandma’s purse with colorful play money, and the two follow a “budget” as they wend their way through grocery stores, furniture stores and fashion outlets. Strickland’s playful mix of watercolor, paper cutouts, and collage both engages on its own and supports the story’s theme.
Both old-fashioned and fresh-feeling, this book is thoroughly worthy of a shopping trip. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60060-438-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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