Visit the library or bookstore for a new read instead.
A flier from the Daddy Store starts a young boy to thinking about his dad’s flaws.
His dad doesn’t notice his aquatic feats at the pool and thinks the fair’s expensive, so the boy pulls his sad-looking and obviously reluctant dad by the hand to the Daddy Store for a trade. But the three different dads he tries out aren’t much better. One is a cheerleader parent, another is too competitive, and a third, a movie star, takes the boy to the fair but gives him money instead of his time. The boy returns to the Daddy Store just in time to prevent two other children from walking away with his original father, and the two, both white, return home: “You are the best dad in the world!” Never addressed is the inattention that originally prompted the trade. While the sign behind the counter prompts shoppers to “Choose your color,” “Choose your type” (seemingly amount of muscle/weight), and “Choose your size” (height), of the three dads on display, two are white, and one might be Latino (though on the endpapers and in one internal illustration, eight more dads are pictured: five white, one possibly East Asian, and two dark-skinned—one in a wheelchair and one very pudgy one who is labeled “Makes delicious pancakes”). The illustrations, which appear to be digital, just echo the text, and most of the featured women are troublingly sexualized.
Visit the library or bookstore for a new read instead. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60537-266-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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
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