Young readers will root for Sid to find his new home while cheering for the human environmentalist who helps his mission by...
Trying to find a new a new home, a hermit crab encounters too much trash in this understated story of environmental activism by debut author/illustrator Johnston.
One morning, Sid the hermit crab wakes up to discover he has outgrown his shell. Eager to find a new home, he makes his way down the shallow water to look for shells. What he discovers instead are “some very strange looking shells”—a shoe, cans, a milk carton, a calculator, and all sorts of human garbage. In a series of humorous illustrations, accompanied by Sid’s commentary, he discovers that while these strange shells look appealing, they don’t work very well for a hermit crab. When he explores a human foot, wondering how he might find a way inside for his new home, the foot moves and Sid scrambles for safety. Luckily for Sid, the human is a beachcomber collecting garbage from the shallow waters, and as the garbage vanishes, the natural shells of the beach are uncovered. While Johnston’s message about littering and keeping the beach and waterways clean is clear, there’s no mandate for readers because the story is offered from Sid’s detached perspective. Instead, young readers are given the chance to discover the message on their own: if they take good care of the water, then creatures like Sid will have better homes. Johnston’s illustrations are simple but delightful. Hermit crabs aren’t the most appealing of creatures, but Sid, with his lively eyes, is easy to embrace, and Johnston manages to give plenty of expression to a creature without a recognizable face. Some of the writing and punctuation can come across as a little strange—“ ‘What are these?’ Sid exclaimed!”—but those moments are easy enough for adults to ignore as they read aloud. Newly independent readers may find the choices more troubling, though they’ll be able to handle the vocabulary without too much trouble.
Young readers will root for Sid to find his new home while cheering for the human environmentalist who helps his mission by picking up garbage.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1502871688
Page Count: 30
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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