Mia’s illustrated adventures with friends and family members are sure to engage young readers.
A girl spends a fun summer investigating a ghost and learning about the important of sunblock in dermatologist Strugar’s series-starting graphic novel for young readers.
Every year, young Mia’s family drives from New York City to their second home in Connecticut for the first week of summer break. This time, her brother Luka’s friend Jude is coming along. The kids spend the night before the drive watching scary movies that give Luka nightmares. On the way to Connecticut, as the car passes by a cemetery, the kids all hold their breath so they don’t accidentally swallow a ghost, but Mia’s and Luka’s father doesn’t. After the boys throw rabbit poop at Mia and her Connecticut neighbor, Anya, during a tennis match (“Ugh, rabbit poop, so gross!” says Mia), the girls decide to get back at them by making them believe the father’s slip-up at the cemetery has turned him into a ghost. Luka, who’s easily frightened, and science-minded Jude spend the rest of the vacation trying to figure out if there’s a ghost in their midst. Jude comes up with increasingly convoluted ways to check the father’s temperature, but his results are muddled by outside factors. Overall, the boys’ investigation is intriguing. However, it soon takes a backseat to a sometimes clunky secondary plot of the boys battling sunburns, due to a lack of proper sun protection. Strugar competently introduces sun safety concepts into the story when the cast pays a visit to a dermatologist, Dr. Lazic, due to Luka’s sunburn. This section—which explains how to use sunblock—will be informative and accessible for young readers who have yet to visit a dermatologist or know little about the effects of too much sun exposure. Embeli’s cute, full-color cartoon art, which features a diverse cast, goes a long way to ensure that the work doesn’t come across as a didactic public service announcement. Luka pieces together a logical explanation for all of his father’s ghostlike qualities, but a fun cliffhanger ending leaves room for a sequel.
Mia’s illustrated adventures with friends and family members are sure to engage young readers.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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