HOW TO TIE A SHOE & OTHER BIG ADVENTURES

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HOW TO TIE A SHOE & OTHER BIG ADVENTURES

Name: HOW TO TIE A SHOE & OTHER BIG ADVENTURES
Author: Skip Hill
ISBN: 978-0-9996584-8-2

From the Penny Candy series

illustrated by Skip Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2020

A quirky picture book that respects the intelligence of children.

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A how-to book that isn’t.

This whimsical, poetic instruction manual for how to tie a shoe mentions eating spaghetti, finding birds’ nests, combing hair, and staring at patterns in a rug, assuming children (probably) can figure out how to tie their own shoes. Sketchy, black-and-white pen-and-ink illustrations portray children from many different backgrounds doing everyday activities like playing outside in a sprinkler, greeting buddies, and hugging good friends after summer break. Hill illustrates a Black girl peeking out from inside a tent on her first camping trip and a girl hugging a boy (both are White) in a wheelchair—normalizing portrayals that still rarely appear in picture books. Stylized, hand-drawn text blurs the boundaries between words and pictures and emphasizes that words can morph into art and vice versa—or that words are art, and art evokes language. Perspectives vary in each scene: Some children look directly out at the audience; sometimes readers gaze into a scene past the child character’s back; sometimes readers see only a child’s hands or legs. Emotions vary too, including joy, contemplation, and sadness, offering a range of vicarious experiences for readers. Ultimately, this book uses learning to tie a shoe as a metaphor for personal growth and experiential learning—with the beauty and challenges that accompany both.

A quirky picture book that respects the intelligence of children. (Picture book. 7-11)

Pub Date: March 10, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-9996584-8-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Penny Candy

Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
A GIFT FROM GREENSBORO
by Quraysh Ali Lansana ; illustrated by Skip Hill

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CODY HARMON, KING OF PETS

From the Franklin School Friends series

by Claudia Mills ; illustrated by Rob Shepperson ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 14, 2016

Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.

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When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.

As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?

Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)

Pub Date: June 14, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LOST LANGUAGE
by Claudia Mills

- BOOK REVIEW
BOOGIE BASS, SIGN LANGUAGE STAR
by Claudia Mills ; illustrated by Grace Zong

- BOOK REVIEW
LUCY LOPEZ, CODING STAR
by Claudia Mills ; illustrated by Grace Zong

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THE HAUNTED MUSTACHE

From the Night Frights series , Vol. 1

by Joe McGee ; illustrated by Teo Skaffa ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 31, 2021

Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair.

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Fifth graders get into a hairy situation.

After an unnamed narrator’s full-page warning, readers dive right into a Wolver Hollow classroom. Mr. Noffler recounts the town legend about how, every Oct. 19, residents don fake mustaches and lock their doors. As the story goes, the late Bockius Beauregard was vaporized in an “unfortunate black powder incident,” but, somehow, his “magnificent mustache” survived to haunt the town. Once a year, the spectral ’stache searches for an exposed upper lip to rest upon. Is it real or superstition? Students Parker and Lucas—sole members of the Midnight Owl Detective Agency—decide to take the case and solve the mustache mystery. When they find that the book of legends they need for their research has been checked out from the library, they recruit the borrower: goth classmate Samantha von Oppelstein. Will the three of them be enough to take on the mustache and resolve its ghostly, unfinished business? Whether through ridiculous plot points or over-the-top descriptions, the comedy keeps coming in this first title in McGee’s new Night Frights series. A generous font and spacing make this quick-paced, 13-chapter story appealing to newly confident readers. Skaffa’s grayscale cartoon spot (and occasional full-page) illustrations help set the tone and accentuate the action. Though neither race or skin color is described in the text, images show Lucas and Samantha as light-skinned and Parker as dark-skinned.

Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair. (maps) (Fiction. 7-10)