Next book

DRUM CITY

A driving beat powers this simple story of a boy who, merrily drumming with kitchen utensils, summons all the neighborhood kids to join him. The kids come en masse with buckets, barrels, pots, pans and anything that can make noise. The horde of drumming children marches down the city streets, disrupting the “humdrum of the city” with the rhythmic pounding of their makeshift drums. The adults in the city hear the rumbling and stop, waiting. When the kids march through the streets to their groovin’ beats, everyone starts jamming with them. Suddenly, “[t]the city becomes a city of drums, / banging and clanging as everyone comes. / A summer parade, a drummer parade, / a magical bucket-and-bowl serenade / in the heart / of a city of / drums.” Newton’s illustrations depict a multiethnic, multigenerational cast of characters in a vibrant urban setting. This one begs to be read aloud in a music or city-sounds storytime. But be forewarned—anything even remotely drum-like will not be safe for the rest of the day. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 8, 2010

ISBN: 978-1-58246-308-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tricycle

Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2010

Next book

THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL

Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up.

In Murray’s children’s debut, when a gingerbread man made by schoolchildren gets left behind at recess, he decides he has to find his class: “I’ll run and I’ll run, / As fast as I can. / I can catch them! I’m their / Gingerbread Man!”

And so begins his rollicking rhyming adventure as he runs, limps, slides and skips his way through the school, guided on his way by the friendly teachers he meets. Flattened by a volleyball near the gym, he gets his broken toe fixed by the kindly nurse and then slides down the railing into the art teacher’s lunch. Then it’s off to the principal’s office, where he takes a spin in her chair before she arrives. “The children you mentioned just left you to cool. / They’re hanging these posters of you through the school.” The principal takes him back to the classroom, where the children all welcome him back. The book’s comic-book layout suits the elementary-school tour that this is, while Lowery’s cartoon artwork fits the folktale theme. Created with pencil, screen printing and digital color, the simple illustrations give preschoolers a taste of what school will be like. While the Gingerbread Man is wonderfully expressive, though, the rather cookie-cutter teachers could use a little more life.

Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: July 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-399-25052-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011

Next book

IF YOU LAUGH, I'M STARTING THIS BOOK OVER

Desperation confused for hysterics.

Harris’ latest makes an urgent plea for somber reflection.

“Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!” Right from the get-go, readers are presented with three rules for reading this book (“Don’t look at this book!” “Do look at your listener!” “Get your listener to look at you!”). But the true lesson is in the title itself: If anyone listening to this book laughs, you have to start it all over. Challenge accepted? Good. Sheer frenetic energy propels what passes for a narrative as the book uses every trick up its sleeve to give kids the giggles. Silly names, ridiculous premises, and kooky art combine, all attempting some level of hilarity. Bloch’s art provides a visual cacophony of collaged elements, all jostling for the audience’s attention. Heavily influenced by similar fourth wall–busting titles like The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992) by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith, and the more contemporary The Book With No Pictures (2014) by B.J. Novak, these attempts to win over readers and make them laugh will result in less giggles than one might imagine. In the end, the ultimate success of this book may rest less on the art or text and more on the strength of the reader’s presentation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Desperation confused for hysterics. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-316-42488-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022

Close Quickview