An effective bridge from simple shape identification to more specific geometric facts.
What’s the deal with the odd shape whose name sounds like a dino?
Triangle is the director of a space-themed play, and auditions are underway. The other shapes step up and state their strengths. Square says, “I have four sides. I can make a box. I like to stack.” Trapezoid continually interrupts, trying to proclaim similar merits—“I also have four sides. But I think outside the box!”—but is consistently dismissed. Eventually, the play is cast: Circle is the full moon, Star is a shooting star (obviously), Triangle stacked on Square makes the rocket. Trapezoid is cast as a dinosaur but rejects the role, saving the show when it finds a trap door and makes a dramatic entrance to ask to be the “rocket booster.” The show is a successful “BLAST OFF!” Despite Trapezoid’s intrusions, the other characters display good-natured camaraderie throughout, and there is plenty of wordplay. Star’s proclamation that “I have five points” is paired with a bulleted list of mostly shape-related statements, for instance. Illustrations are comics-style, with frequent paneling and word balloons. Sticklike appendages and a hand-drawn style make the shapes surprisingly expressive. The prevalent purple outer-space background on the wooden stage visually grounds the story while still allowing the shapes’ soft primary colors to pop. The text ends with a brief discussion on classifying shapes, a minicomic to further visualize parallel lines, and the URL to the author’s website for “more fun with shapes.”
An effective bridge from simple shape identification to more specific geometric facts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-58089-883-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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