Kathy describes the hats she's worn since she was a baby- -winter cap, sunbonnet, Easter finery—until the year she gets cancer and chemotherapy leaves her with a new need for hats that makes her dislike them for the first time. This attitude problem is solved rather easily when Kathy takes Mama's advice to put on a ``thinking cap...to help...when you are faced with a challenge.'' Still, it's useful to have a realistic, straightforward, and upbeat picture of a child coping with cancer and surviving it, as many do; the hats also give the story an effective unifying motif. An author's note sets the book in this context and explains that it is based on her own daughter's experience; Westcott's perceptive, freely drawn illustrations are painted in cheerfully attractive colors. (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-8075-4116-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
A tribute to the essential substance, washed free of preachiness or even faintly cautionary messages.
Twelve children from different areas of the world offer lyrical reflections on what water means to them.
To Delaunois’ fictive cast water invariably sparks positive feelings—even for a Catalan lad watching his village being flooded by a dam “for the sake of new power, / the reservoir that holds the energy to light up distant cities. / For me,” he concludes, “water is the night that blazes like day.” It is valued in places where it is a scarce resource too: to a Moroccan desert child water is “a cup of mint tea,” and it’s “an outstretched hand” from a tank truck for a child in drought-stricken Mauretania. Though the specific locale of each young speaker is keyed only by a watermarked version of “Water is life” embedded in the illustration that is translated into his or her script and language (identified in a list at the end), Frischeteau varies the skin color and, albeit in an idealized way, facial features of his human figures. He also often adds characteristic wildlife, national dress, or other cues to each locale. Following an unborn child’s “For me, water is the song of my mother: / the ocean of her belly where I am transforming myself,” the author concludes that “for all of us, water is a matter of life.”
A tribute to the essential substance, washed free of preachiness or even faintly cautionary messages. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77278-015-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Mild monster exposure for kids just dipping their toes in creepy.
Following Ghost Attack (2017), a new spooky encounter triggers Alex’s allergies.
White Alex is on the verge of setting a new kickball home-run record. But there’s a new (exceptionally pale) recess monitor that the kids nickname Gloomy Girl, and suddenly Alex can’t stop sneezing—explosions so big they don’t just impede his kickball game, but also bring on massive, sequential humiliations. Field day is coming up, and Alex’s plan to win a trophy with his kickball skills is jeopardized by his allergies. His white cousin Sarah attempts to talk to the monitor to straighten things out only to learn that Gloomy Girl can speak directly into minds and controls an army of rats. The cousins consult The Big Book of Monsters and follow up with internet research (there’s a savvy subplot on how to evaluate online sources), determining that she’s a vampire capable of being outside on cloudy days. But they need to solve the allergy fast—Alex’s parents want to come watch field day, and if his allergist mother sees him sneezing she could pull him from all sports. Lubar’s second in his horror-lite chapter-book series features a likable protagonist whose loopy problem is, though exaggerated, similar enough to real-world ones suffered by many kids to make him easy to connect to. The agreeably zany plot winds its way to a conclusion that even includes reconciliation with a school bully.
Mild monster exposure for kids just dipping their toes in creepy. (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-87349-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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