For readers ready to ponder the future or as an alternative to Oh, the Places You’ll Go in graduation season.
Bright collages show a young person visiting different locations and finding ways to make positive impacts wherever they go.
“Life is like a winding path, with lots of different places to discover along the way.” The young person on the verso is about to cross the threshold from a house’s interior to a torn-paper path that leads to distant hills visible from a picture window across the page’s gutter. As with all the art, there are myriad details for pleasurable pondering. In the foreground, viewers will find a wood-grained table, books and statuary on bookshelves, a cat, wall posters, and more. The recto continues with what sets the tone for the rest of the book: “If you could go anywhere, imagine where you might find yourself.” The remainder of the book has readers imagining themselves in places as varied as a rainforest and a crowded subway car as it briefly explores such separate ideas as paleontology, farming, and musicianship with extraterrestrials. The art and text are often delightfully whimsical, as in a funny tribute to the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden.” More-serious images include the apparently White protagonist respectfully sharing a campfire with an Aboriginal didgeridoo player. The accessible text always encourages readers to make life choices that uphold values such as helping, sharing, and togetherness, expanded in the backmatter. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
For readers ready to ponder the future or as an alternative to Oh, the Places You’ll Go in graduation season. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-76076-033-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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