Poking its way across the border more than ten years after its first exposure in Canada, this wry twist on the Penile Code provides direct reassurance to worried readers (of the male persuasion, at least) that Size Doesn’t Matter. Catching sight of nerdy Martin standing naked in a swimming-pool dressing room, swaggering Adrian sneeringly dubs him “Little Zizi”; when Adrian goes on to announce that the lads will all decide who’s to be pretty Anais’s boyfriend with a peeing contest, Martin determines to fight back—but despite hard practice, come the contest he can’t perform. No matter: Anais proceeds to hook up with Martin for a smooch. After a while, everything in Poulin’s finely-modeled illustrations, from a string of sausages to a peaked cowboy hat, begins to look like a phallic symbol. Perspective renders the anatomy in question only barely visible; more obvious is the contrast between Adrian’s piggy countenance and Martin’s hunched shoulders and opaque eyeglasses. Not a comfortable topic, at least in this country, but the frankness and humor with which author and illustrator address it will draw a (wait for it) swelling audience. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-933693-05-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
As Amber tells he, teasing third-grade classmates, she's not a crayon color but a girl — messy but well adjusted, lucky in a teacher who makes a game of studying other countries, trying to forget that best-friend Justin is moving to Alabama as soon as his parents can sell their house. When they do, Justin and Amber — whose own parents' divorce makes this new separation even more painful — fall into a silly quarrel; still, with a little sympathetic encouragement from the adults, they realize that its true cause is their dejection about the move and make up just before Justin leaves. The familiar story is nicely individualized in Amber's buoyant, authentically childlike narration; it's grand to have Danziger add books for younger readers to her many popular titles for the older crowd. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 13, 1994
ISBN: 0-399-22509-9
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Carried by wackiness and jokes aplenty.
An embarrassment-prone kid starts at a new school.
The protagonist’s name is redacted, and an emoticon-style sticker (showing different emotions) covers his face in the illustrations, because, as he explains, it would be far too humiliating for readers to know his identity. He hopes his new town and school will be a fresh start, but right away, he’s plagued by misfortunes. Once he finally makes it to school (late because of a hilarious incident involving maple syrup and a pack of dogs), he searches for his classroom, encountering more woes. Along the way, he crosses paths with star athlete Jake Gold and video game heiress Regina Du Lar, who help him find room 31-Z. The unusual school becomes even odder as the trio uncover a staircase hidden in a locker. Nothing comes of the discovery, however, other than the kids making a new friend (described as having “ghostly pale hands,” though in the illustrations, her skin color is somewhere between the narrator’s and Jake’s paper-white skin tone and Regina’s dark brown complexion), who quickly solves their problem and leads them to the classroom. And though the protagonist endures one last embarrassing moment, he’s also reassured that his new friends like him anyway. Some readers may be distracted by illustrations that occasionally don’t match the stated character details. Though the plot’s a little thin, it sticks the landing, and the occasionally gross-out, cringe-type humor will please many readers.
Carried by wackiness and jokes aplenty. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781665942218
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
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