Younger readers familiar with the genre may enjoy this funny alternative story.
Spider-Ham isn’t the brightest, despite his good intentions.
In this funny comic, a porcine version of Marvel’s Spider-Man must make sense of responsibility and adventure when he is given—and then loses—the keys to the city! A pig with all the superpowers, strength, and agility of a spider, he’s also “the funniest hero in the multiverse” who still cannot seem to get any respect. After accidentally accepting the key to the city and then losing it, Spider-Ham must retrace his steps to figure out what happened. In doing so he crosses paths with villains and friends who move him along in his attempt to retrieve the lost key. Many of these characters will remind readers of their human versions from the classic Marvel comics. Even the real Spider-Man shows up for a very brief conversation about responsibility. All the characters except Spider-Man are animals. The book is fun and will get younger readers turning pages. However, while the snappy language and glibness in this text might amuse early-elementary readers, the Spider-Ham character doesn’t have much depth. He’s playing video games while being honored by the city, issuing snark and wisecracks and sarcasm in the name of humor—a technique that comes across as pandering to the early-elementary audience.
Younger readers familiar with the genre may enjoy this funny alternative story. (Graphic adventure. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-73431-7
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
A passable steppingstone to books that truly honor women in space.
An 8-year-old science enthusiast takes a surprise trip to the moon with her new neighbor, her cat, and her baby brother.
First in a series for transitioning independent readers, this chapter book introduces Astronaut Girl, also known as Val, a confident White girl who’s full of facts about space. While her botanist mom and physicist dad work, Val pretends to command Apollo 11. Astro Cat and the Baby aren’t the most diligent of crew members (which makes for some mild humor), but a new one soon shows up in the form of a Black boy Val’s age. Wallace has just moved in next door, and he loves the space-themed TV show Comet Jumpers. Instead of exciting Val, though, that makes her roll her eyes. When she watched Comet Jumpers, she “wasn’t impressed. The science is totally wrong,” she says. (This is pretty rich coming from someone whose Apollo history is, in fact, totally wrong: Val tells Wallace that “a problem with the ship’s computer” almost stopped Apollo 11 from landing on the moon, but in fact, the ship’s computer prevented a problem. The computer was the reason Apollo 11 was able to land, thanks to work led by real-life space heroine Margaret Hamilton.) Wallace doesn’t let Val shout him down, and she grows to respect his knowledge in their ensuing space adventure. Purple-toned illustrations are simplistic but energetic.
A passable steppingstone to books that truly honor women in space. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-09571-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An unusual, touching adventure involving a book, a library, and a friend.
Two friends experience a prolonged separation in this import from Québec.
Gilbert, a quiet White boy, and Raymond, a “brave, strong and hairy” buffalo who “live[s] in the pages of a book” called Raymond the Buffalo, are “inseparable”—until Gilbert becomes obsessed with dinosaurs and abandons his pal. When Gilbert’s mom accidentally picks up Raymond the Buffalo and mistakenly returns it to the library along with a stack of dinosaur books, the librarian tells her to “just throw [the books] down the chute.” Terrified, Raymond survives the chute but emerges outside his book. Upon realizing his mother’s terrible mistake, Gilbert rushes to the library and becomes “inconsolable” when he learns the librarian has not seen Raymond the Buffalo. Later the librarian discovers Raymond but doesn’t know Gilbert’s name to reunite them. She advises Raymond he may stay in the library until Gilbert returns, but, months later, Raymond learns Gilbert’s moved away. Raymond likes living in the library and, as years pass, becomes friends with the librarian (a White woman named Nicole), but he never forgets Gilbert, hoping they’ll meet again. The large, easy-to-read text and detailed, amusing, perky illustrations track Raymond through his friendship with Gilbert, his harrowing arrival at the library, the painful separation, and his eventual adjustment to a new life. With his wily eyes and endearing grin, plucky Raymond offers a lesson in enduring friendships, old and new.
An unusual, touching adventure involving a book, a library, and a friend. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2617-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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