No more than a quick shuffle, but for young readers who can Mind the Gap, the flavour does come through.
Foods, festivals, and frolics mingle in this 12-month tour through England’s calendar of traditions old and, well, older.
Multiculturalism is definitely the order of the day. Five children of diverse ancestry introduce themselves with greetings from “Hiya” to “Namaste!” and “Witam!” They then squire viewers month by month past occasions ranging from catching a double-decker school bus to Commonwealth Day, Pongal, and Eid al-Fitr. Tables display Yorkshire puddings and mushy peas in January and paratha and sarnies in September; favorite activities include cheese rolling and gathering for a Boxing Day viewing of The Snowman on the telly—perhaps with some of Mum’s fruit mince pie and mulled wine for refreshments. A similarly varied cast poses in companion A Scottish Year amid somewhat more parochial nods to neeps and tatties, whisky and haggis, An Fhèis Mhór, and St Andrew’s Day. The scattered one-sentence comments in both titles may leave non-Anglophiles in the dark about, for instance, the Blackpool Illuminations, but they generally convey the gist of each event, and the cartoon illustrations put up bright faces and spots of color even for such solemn occasions as Remembrance Day. Each volume closes with a highly stylized map, plus a proper if too-inconspicuous disclaimer that the aim was to be inclusive rather than comprehensive.
No more than a quick shuffle, but for young readers who can Mind the Gap, the flavour does come through. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-921966-86-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: EK Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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