A fine incentive to motivate couch potatoes young and old to move
A lively intergenerational picture book that will send readers out to the sidewalk for a hoopin’ good time.
When Kameeka gets the hula-hoopin’ itch, her fingers snap, her feet tap, and her hips swing. She feels “the itch” coming on one afternoon, and she gets ready to step outside to compete against her hoopin’ archrival, Jamara. Mama, however, has other plans, as she prepares the house for Miz Adeline’s party, a grandmotherly neighbor who took care of both Kameeka and Mama as children. When Mama sends Kameeka on an emergency run to the grocery store for ingredients to replace the fallen double-fudge chocolate cake, Kameeka takes a detour that lasts much longer than it should. But hoop she must to save her reputation in the neighborhood. Godin’s lively language paired with Brantley-Newton’s colorful collage illustrations of children from many different backgrounds gives readers a realistic view of this diverse and close-knit urban community. The pictures that hang on the walls of Kameeka’s house—of Ruby Bridges and a brown-skinned, cap-and-gown–wearing graduate—hint at the importance of both education and African-American history in this family. The elderly Miz Adeline validates Kameeka’s love of the hula hoop when she demonstrate through her own hoopin’ moves that some forms of play remain timeless.
A fine incentive to motivate couch potatoes young and old to move . (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: May 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60060-846-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Make space for this clever blend of science and self-realization.
If Pluto can’t be a planet—then what is he?
Having been a regular planet for “the better part of forever,” Pluto is understandably knocked out of orbit by his sudden exclusion. With Charon and his four other moons in tow he sets off in search of a new identity. Unfortunately, that only spins him into further gloom, as he doesn’t have a tail like his friend Halley’s comet, is too big to join Ida and the other asteroids, and feels disinclined to try to crash into Earth like meteoroids Gem and Persi. Then, just as he’s about to plunge into a black hole of despair, an encounter with a whole quartet of kindred spheroids led by Eris rocks his world…and a follow-up surprise party thrown by an apologetic Saturn (“Dwarf planet has a nice RING to it”) and the other seven former colleagues literally puts him “over the moon.” Demmer gives all the heavenly bodies big eyes (some, including the feminine Saturn, with long lashes) and, on occasion, short arms along with distinctive identifying colors or markings. Dressing the troublemaking meteoroids in do-rags and sunglasses sounds an off note. Without mentioning that the reclassification is still controversial, Wade closes with a (somewhat) straighter account of Pluto’s current official status and the reasons for it.
Make space for this clever blend of science and self-realization. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68446-004-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
Further proof that Bad Kitty can be good…especially in the eyes of her many fans. (Humor. 6-10)
In Bad Kitty's return, she attempts to answer one critical question: “What the heck is that thing?”
In the beginning was Kitty. She was alone, and she liked it that way. Dark times arrived with the stinky, leaking, omnipresent Puppy; Kitty reconciled herself to that travesty. But after Kitty and Puppy spend a brief and ill-advised time in the guardianship of Uncle Murray, IT comes home with the humans. It plays, it stinks, it drools; Kitty is sure it’s a dog. When all her friends come over for a special round of Pussycat Olympics, they conclude IT is a New Kitty. (A Bad Kitty Screaming Temper Tantrum ensues). Will Bad Kitty have a change of heart once she learns the origins of the family’s new arrival? Bruel’s fourth long-form tale of Bad Kitty (Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray, 2010, etc.) offers his trademark spastic black-and-white illustrations in full-bleed and spots with plenty of baby and cat sounds in dialogue bubbles (translated into English where necessary). Uncle Murray’s Fun Facts return with occasional chapters on cat climbing and getting stuck in trees. There is plenty of slapstick, a few silly dream sequences and the obligatory gross bits. An appendix on cat training rounds out Bad Kitty’s Baby encounter.
Further proof that Bad Kitty can be good…especially in the eyes of her many fans. (Humor. 6-10)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-597-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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