An understated book about losing one’s temper and the love of family.
Ravi is the smallest in his family—even Biscuits the dog is bigger.
Most of the time, Ravi is happy with his stature, but on one particular afternoon on the playground, Ravi is frustrated by the too-high monkey bars and the too-big slide. When his siblings race to the ice cream vendor before him and the vendor runs out of ice cream, Ravi is enraged. “He growled… / and a stripy tail popped out from the back of his shorts. / Then… / he sprouted two furry ears, sharp, pointy teeth, and stripy orange fur. // Ravi had turned into a TIGER!” Ravi’s family is frightened: His brother hands the tiger his ice cream, and everyone vacates a bench when the tiger roars. Emboldened, Ravi conquers the monkey bars and slide but soon realizes that nobody wants to play with him because he is irrationally angry. All ends well with apologies and hugs. While unremarkable in themes, Percival’s tale does depict a South Asian family engaged in everyday activities; that it’s father-led normalizes the possibility that the family in the book is a single-father household. The illustrations are also quite punchy and dramatically flip from full-color to a very appropriate limited palette—orange, black, white—when Ravi is depicted as a tiger.
An understated book about losing one’s temper and the love of family. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0300-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
A disappointing follow-up.
Inventor Izzy Gizmo is back in this sequel to her eponymous debut (2017).
While busily inventing one day, Izzy receives an invitation from the Genius Guild to their annual convention. Though Izzy’s “inventions…don’t always work,” Grandpa (apparently her sole caregiver) encourages her to go. The next day they undertake a long journey “over fields, hills, and waves” and “mile after mile” to isolated Technoff Isle. There, Izzy finds she must compete against four other kids to create the most impressive machine. The colorful, detail-rich illustrations chronicle how poor Izzy is thwarted at every turn by Abi von Lavish, a Veruca Salt–esque character who takes all the supplies for herself. But when Abi abandons her project, Izzy salvages the pieces and decides to take Grandpa’s advice to create a machine that “can really be put to good use.” A frustrated Izzy’s impatience with a friend almost foils her chance at the prize, but all’s well that ends well. There’s much to like: Brown-skinned inventor girl Izzy is an appealing character, it’s great to see a nurturing brown-skinned male caregiver, the idea of an “Invention Convention” is fun, and a sustainable-energy invention is laudable. However, these elements don’t make up for rhymes that often feel forced and a lackluster story.
A disappointing follow-up. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68263-164-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...
Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.
Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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