This may spark a few imaginations, but its lack of directions and the difficulty level of most of the projects—not to...
Readers learn how to “Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent” what some might call trash into treasures.
Rhyming poems each introduce a single way to reuse/reinvent something: A toilet becomes a planter, the titular shoe morphs into a birdhouse, a (very large, nonstandard) light bulb houses a fish, and favorite jeans that are holey? They become a new purse. The most creative has to be a table supported by a pitchfork: “If you’re wanting to picnic on uneven ground, / where your table’s unstable or up on a mound, / stop and think! Be creative! The answer’s around.” While cans, wood and wire are both easily found and transformed into musical instruments, not all these projects use such common materials or are as simple to complete: Half of a boat turns into a covered bench, a car becomes a bed, and a grocery cart transforms into a chair. And although it’s neat to see a farmer’s new watering trough (an enormous tire) and a community’s new playground (an old ambulance anchors it), these are not projects that are likely to fire readers up to do similar things. Cartoon spot illustrations share space with photographs of the new inventions, and both are needed to make sense of the poems.
This may spark a few imaginations, but its lack of directions and the difficulty level of most of the projects—not to mention its failure to impart reasons for reducing, reusing and recycling—make this one to skip. (Poetry. 7-10)Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55451-642-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not the Best Riff on a Children’s Classic Ever, but good for the occasional chuckle. (Picture book. 7-9)
A twisted Richard Scarry–esque outing finds the creators’ “Uglydoll” figures serving in place of all the cute kitties and puppies and piggies.
Aimed at hip graduates of Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever (1963) and modeled after same, this visit to the Uglyverse invites readers to pore over big, busy, labeled assemblages of cartoon images while helping blobby Babo do a variety of things. They will search a city streetscape for his one-eyed unicorn, make stops at Ugly Port Harbor and elsewhere, tour a farmer’s market and a factory, then finally explore Babo’s home and neighborhood for such items as an “ebook reader,” a pitcher of “tea with interesting taste” and “pricey 1/6 scale action figures from Hong Kong.” Along with wisecracks in each relatively thematic spread’s introductory paragraph (“What’s a pleasure boat? Anything small that doesn’t sink”), the authors mix conventional descriptive words for common objects and people with a sardonic lexicon of terms both useful (“ATM number pad,” “retro game machine,” “parking enforcement officer”) and less so (“magnetic blender,” “canned moonlight”). Each is placed near a small, simply drawn item or garishly colored monster.
Not the Best Riff on a Children’s Classic Ever, but good for the occasional chuckle. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-86434-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Definitely not a beginner’s ABC book, but the visual and print punnery will have elementary kids (and adults) guessing and...
Help! The letter E has fallen (down the stairs) and can’t get up!
Get ready to chortle over this zany alphabet book, which poses as a mystery with the letters as the cast of characters, aided by some exclamation points. When E takes a tumble in the alphabet’s crowded communal quarters, all the others are concerned. A takes action, as always, calling the ambulance and assembling the alphabet to determine who will take E’s place. “O, you're the obvious option because you’re so well-rounded.” An announcement is made on television not to “uso! E! until! sho! rocovors!” D and C go to Washington to alert the "govornmont," while the other letters talk it up on talk shows. Then A decides to take a road trip to spread the word: “Pack your bags, lottors. It’s timo for a journoy!” When E just doesn’t get better, the search is on for the culprit who’s broken the letter law. The comic illustrations and the comments from the letters totally exaggerate the cleverness and fun while amusingly emphasizing the importance of the letter E in our language. Lichtenheld’s co-author developed the basic concept in a video, Alphabet House, and it is a rich one.
Definitely not a beginner’s ABC book, but the visual and print punnery will have elementary kids (and adults) guessing and laughing. (Alphabet picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8118-7898-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
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