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ELLSWORTH’S EXTRAORDINARY ELECTRIC EARS

Name: ELLSWORTH’S EXTRAORDINARY ELECTRIC EARS
Author: Valorie Fisher
ISBN: 0-689-85030-1

AND OTHER AMAZING ALPHABET ANECDOTES

by Valorie Fisher & illustrated by Valorie Fisher ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2003

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Astonishingly arranged assemblages of toys and miniatures described by alliterative nonsense phrases are depicted in brightly colored photographs. The title phrase refers to a small plastic businessman with tiny lit-up light bulbs sticking out of his ears. The creativity of the phrases, one for each letter of the alphabet, is only outdone by the effort it must have taken to find and arrange the small items that make up the whimsical dioramas. “Mario’s mechanical moustache machine made many mistakes” shows a cardboard cutout of a piece of antique-looking machinery placed near figurines of animals and people, to which the author/artist has attached tiny, exaggerated handlebar moustaches. The pictures frequently include additional objects that begin with the respective letter, encouraging readers to look closely: even though the word “moon” is not mentioned, it also wears a moustache on the “M” page. Impressive and innovative. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: June 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-689-85030-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Atheneum

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2003

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
NOW YOU KNOW WHAT YOU EAT
by Valorie Fisher ; illustrated by Valorie Fisher

- BOOK REVIEW
NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT WORKS
by Valorie Fisher ; illustrated by Valorie Fisher

- BOOK REVIEW
I CAN DO IT MYSELF
by Valorie Fisher ; illustrated by Valorie Fisher

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A BIKE LIKE SERGIO'S

by Maribeth Boelts ; illustrated by Noah Z. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...

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Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.

This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PURPLE PUFFY COAT
by Maribeth Boelts ; illustrated by Daniel Duncan

- BOOK REVIEW
KAIA AND THE BEES
by Maribeth Boelts ; illustrated by Angela Dominguez

- BOOK REVIEW
HAPPY LIKE SOCCER
by Maribeth Boelts & illustrated by Lauren Castillo

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TRASHY TOWN

by Andrea Zimmerman & David Clemesha ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 1999

Part of a spate of books intent on bringing the garbage collectors in children’s lives a little closer, this almost matches...

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Listeners will quickly take up the percussive chorus—“Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy town! Is the trash truck full yet? NO”—as they follow burly Mr. Gilly, the garbage collector, on his rounds from park to pizza parlor and beyond.

Flinging cans and baskets around with ease, Mr. Gilly dances happily through streetscapes depicted with loud colors and large, blocky shapes; after a climactic visit to the dump, he roars home for a sudsy bath.

Part of a spate of books intent on bringing the garbage collectors in children’s lives a little closer, this almost matches Eve Merriam’s Bam Bam Bam (1995), also illustrated by Yaccarino, for sheer verbal and visual volume. (Picture book. 5-7)