Imparts a message of inclusivity; may help those struggling to understand friends on the autism spectrum.
Debut author Workman tackles the challenging topic of befriending a child with autism in this sympathetic and triumphant, if amateurishly illustrated, picture book.
Lucy, who is 8 years old, is eager to make friends with the new kid at school, and she quickly compliments his wonderful drawing. When the boy, Daniel, ignores her, she gets angry and can’t understand why he won’t talk to her. After her teacher explains autism, Lucy tries again, this time talking to Daniel’s aide. Lucy’s friends Sophia and Flynn don’t understand her interest in Daniel, and when the other kids at school laugh at his strange behavior, Lucy decides to stick up for him. That’s the beginning of their friendship, and after that, they spend more time together. She discovers how much she and Daniel have in common, and she learns about Daniel’s amazing memory. Lucy invites her classmates to her birthday party at a water park, where she talks Daniel into going down the waterslide with her. Encouraged by his mother, Daniel has a fantastic time. The experience breaks down the barrier between Daniel and the other kids, and suddenly, Lucy’s classmates don’t find him so weird any more. After the party, Sophia and Flynn realize what Lucy has known all along: Daniel is amazing. Lucy is a brave protagonist who is willing to support a friend no one else understands. Daniel is harder to identify with, but Lucy’s belief in him is clear and inspiring. What appear to be ink-and–colored-pencil drawings (by illustrator Raynes) feature a diverse array of children with different ethnicities, dress styles and interests, heightening the idea that while all the kids are different, they can all find ways to have fun together. However, the characters, which have strangely large eyes and lips, look odd and unpolished.
Imparts a message of inclusivity; may help those struggling to understand friends on the autism spectrum.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1939739391
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Riverrun Bookstore Inc
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...
A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.
Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-380-97778-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
