A nonessential addition to the evening storytime stack.
Everybody needs to sleep.
Superheroes, doctors, construction workers…they all need sleep. So do princesses, pirates, and scientists. Every time they turn the page little readers will see an adult role model submitting to slumber’s call. The final pages are dedicated to two children going to bed. The text is formed with quartets in an (occasionally stumbling) aabb rhyme scheme that details each character’s day before bedtime: “Fixing owies big and small, / Broken bones from brother brawls, / Giving every patient their best, / Even doctors need to rest.” The commercial-looking illustrations employ muted colors that will ease little readers to restful states when coupled with the rhyming pattern. The compositions are clean with minimal line and large swaths of color. The range of occupations is commendable, but the diversity less so. There’s only one major nonwhite face here among the adults (a black police officer) and just three women (a doctor, a princess, and a mother). The doctor treats a brown-skinned child, but the two children that stand in for readers are both white. The trade edition includes a “sleep reward chart” and stickers for little ones who need encouragement; both features are absent from the library edition.
A nonessential addition to the evening storytime stack. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-55806-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Combine monsters, ridiculousness, and audience participation for a delightfully raucous result.
Though this book is all about monsters’ bedtime routines, don’t be fooled—this will induce not sleep but its opposite.
Young readers see each step the monsters take in getting ready for bed and are asked to guess which of several items they might eat for a bedtime snack, use to take a bath and brush their teeth, wear as pajamas, snuggle with, and kiss. The very simple sentences and clues in the bright illustrations allow even the youngest children to “read” this very quickly. “MONSTERS eat bedtime snacks. / Which snack do MONSTERS eat?” A glass of milk, a carrot, a piece of bread, or an umbrella? A turn of the page reveals “MONSTERS eat UMBRELLAS!” Similarly, monsters ignore the rubber ducky, shampoo, and bar of soap in favor of bathing in chocolate pudding. By the third question, most children will have caught on and will be happily blurting out the most ridiculous item on the page, which also happens to stand out clearly from the other three. Helpfully, the author breaks this pattern when it comes to potty time. In his ink, brush, and Photoshop illustrations, Zenz uses bright, plain backgrounds to keep the focus on the characters and their choices. The monsters are adorable and wonderfully diverse in all their multilimbed and -eyed glory, featuring sprouts of hair, horns, tails, and spikes.
Combine monsters, ridiculousness, and audience participation for a delightfully raucous result. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1653-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
A simple story enhanced by its funny, gently ironic illustrations.
A little girl diligently gets ready for her day but leaves lots of messes in her wake.
The unnamed girl has light brown skin and dark brown curls similar to her dad’s, and her mom is white. The characters in the digital illustrations have big, exaggerated eyes. The child narrates the text matter-of-factly in simple rhyming sentences: “Time to go potty. I can do this! / Mommy is there to make sure I don’t miss.” Each double-page spread presents a slightly different, humorous visual interpretation of the situation, and it’s in this juxtaposition that the book shines. The cat’s in the hamper, underwear and socks are on the floor, and the pink toilet paper is trailing all over. The two parents seem a little overwhelmed. As they both try to get the girl into her clothes, one arm escapes, and the dad is really sweating from exertion. She insists on tying her laces and buttoning her coat, and the illustrations show the exuberant but incomplete results. As the girl grabs her backpack, her apple rolls out, and Mommy has to grab it. At school, she hangs her coat up, but somehow it lands on the floor (her scarf is also awry), and observant viewers will notice that her shoelace is still untied. In her diverse classroom, she proudly announces: “But this time Daddy, I won’t cry”—and now readers can believe her: there’s nary a tear in sight.
A simple story enhanced by its funny, gently ironic illustrations. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60537-342-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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