An old tale that should have been left alone.
A roly-poly bear, suitcase in hand, knocks on the door of a young child’s brownstone.
The unnamed narrator informs the bear that bears don’t belong in houses. “ ‘Go home, bear.’ And that was that.” But of course it is not. The bear returns with his flamingo friend, so the child says, “Go home, bear. And take that flamingo with you.” Many readers may wonder who wouldn’t want to at least chat a minute or two with a friendly bear and a dazzling flamingo, but this narrator is a tough nut. Maybe there is some earlier animosity that readers are not privy to? The bear is persistent. It comes down the chimney, joins in an art session, and takes a bath with the protagonist. Finally, the narrator yells at the bear to go home. And the bear does. Suddenly the narrator is desperate. Where is the bear? A search commences. The bear returns. Taylor’s art is appealingly retro, making the most of the silliness of the premise. (The narrator is depicted with pale skin, short, brown hair, and wears T-shirts and shorts.) Aside from the silliness, however, little clicks in this story. Why should the bear come back after that rude treatment? What has triggered the narrator’s change of heart? Yes, new friendships are strange, but this one will need therapy right from the beginning.
An old tale that should have been left alone. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2098-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the...
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike.
Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end.
A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87083-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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