by Ted Staunton ; illustrated by Bill Slavin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2014
An amusing combination of grade school frustrations and slightly screwball responses.
Aldeen cruises through life like a monster truck: She crashes into everyone and has little concern for how her take-no-prisoners attitude affects people. So when Aldeen invites Morgan to accompany her and her grandmother to Princesses On Ice and his mother says he has to go, he’s less than thrilled.
Immediately, the third-grader starts plotting ways to avoid the skating show; these reach an added level of desperation when his friend Charlie invites him to a monster-truck show that turns out to be at the same time as the dreaded skating show. Morgan attempts a variety of poorly thought-out schemes, including attempting to foist Aldeen’s invitation off on a classmate and trying to convince her that he has a disease that makes him secretly scared of watching skating. Morgan’s dad keeps advising him to “Man up” and deal with his misfortune, but in the end, Aldeen’s grandmother elects to take them to the truck show instead of the skating event, and it turns out to be…boring! Quirky illustrations, (including a funny and inviting cover that makes this an easy sell), simple text, and recognizable, even mildly suspenseful situations, all combine to make this a chuckle-inducing read for those just advancing into chapter books. Morgan’s own ice-skating misadventures further enhance the mix.
An amusing combination of grade school frustrations and slightly screwball responses. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4595-0289-5
Page Count: 62
Publisher: Formac
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
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by Deborah Zemke ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2019
A funny and timely primer for budding activists.
Problems are afoot at Emily Dickinson Elementary School, and it’s up to Bea Garcia to gather the troops and fight.
Bea Garcia and her best friend, Judith Einstein, sit every day under the 250-year-old oak tree in their schoolyard and imagine a face in its trunk. They name it “Emily” after their favorite American poet. Bea loves to draw both real and imagined pictures of their favorite place—the squirrels in the tree, the branches that reach for the sky, the view from the canopy even though she’s never climbed that high. Until the day a problem boy does climb that high, pelting the kids with acorns and then getting stuck. Bert causes such a scene that the school board declares Emily a nuisance and decides to chop it down. Bea and Einstein rally their friends with environmental facts, poetry, and artwork to try to convince the adults in their lives to change their minds. Bea must enlist Bert if she wants her plan to succeed. Can she use her imagination and Bert’s love of monsters to get him in line? In Bea’s fourth outing, Zemke gently encourages her protagonist to grow from an artist into an activist. Her energy and passion spill from both her narration and her frequent cartoons, which humorously extend the text. Spanish-speaking Bea’s Latinx, Einstein and Bert present white, and their classmates are diverse.
A funny and timely primer for budding activists. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 6-9)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2941-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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by Ian Lendler ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke
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by Kwame Alexander & illustrated by Tim Bowers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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by Kwame Alexander & Deanna Nikaido ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet
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