Sincerity and veracity are the hallmarks of the Barbers’ books. Both are top-flight, professional football players, so they know their topic and base their stories on their own experiences as boys. Here their issue is teamwork and practice as Tiki practices the right way to hang on to the ball and they work together to perfect their schoolboy game. But it’s the everyday atmosphere of kids involved in football—and, by extension, any sport—at which the Barbers excel. Given a strong supporting hand by Root’s artwork, with its sense of late summer drifting into early autumn and the changing of the leaves, the Barbers create a world of Saturday morning pick-up practices, poring over record books and dreaming of glory. If the big game does drag on somewhat, it also helps in understanding that’s how the players are experiencing it: Can’t this game just end now (while we’re ahead, and before there is another chance to fumble the ball)? A lesson of building self-confidence through steadfast pursuit of a goal that’s easy to believe and enjoyable to attain. (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-4169-2489-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
PLB 0-688-15193-0 If I Were Your Father (32 pp.; $16.00; PLB $15.93; May; 0-688-15192-2; PLB 0-688-15193-0): A young boy offers his ideas on parenthood to his father. As the two of them putter around, the boy notes that he would shave with whipped cream, brush his teeth with cake frosting, and take his son fishing on a school day. Both grin their way through the book and through the jaunty repartee: “If I were your father, I’d tuck you in so tight the covers would never come loose.” “But what if I had to go to the bathroom?” “You’d slide out like a letter from an envelope.” This is all very winsome and benign, with the affection so evident on every page that the book is more of a greeting card than a story that moves forward to a natural conclusion. Denton’s airy illustrations are perfectly in keeping with the book’s sweet tone. (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-15192-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
In a spirited book, Camp grabs the notion of a child’s endless inquisitiveness and takes it for a quick spin. Lily, a little charmer that Ross has drawn as an explosion of red hair, drives her father crazy with her question. Why does the breakfast egg need one more minute? Why must they not forget to pick up garbage bags at the store? Why are there rain clouds? One day, just as her father shows signs that his limit has been exceeded, a giant Thargon spaceship appears at the playground and threatens to annihilate Earth. Lily poses a “Why?” or two, and the Thargons return home for the answers, leaving Earth intact. Lily’s questioning saves the day, but it’s no joke; the urge to understand, for her and children like her, is a survival instinct. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23396-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
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