A solid introduction for an appealing new chapter-book character.
Meet Layla and her Bots—Beep, Bop, and Boop—stars of this new, STEM-centric series.
Beep is the knowledge manager, Boop is the engineer, and Bop is the software developer. The quad resides happily in Blossom Valley, working tech by day and then moonlighting as rock stars performing in “all sorts of cool places.” A gig at the Happy Days Amusement Park presents their first challenge, when Layla and her mechanical friends learn that the park may have to close down due to low patronage. Naturally, Layla and the Bots decide to investigate. Layla discovers that her Blossom Valley neighbors all appear to be hanging out with their dogs at the local dog park. The team utilizes the skills of the bots to research the number of families in Blossom Valley and brainstorm reasons why they may all be going to the dog park. After talking to the owner of Happy Days, Layla concludes that to bring back the park’s customers, it needs to become a place where people and dogs can have fun together. This easy-to-predict story, told in a mix of text and speech balloons, will give new readers confidence while imparting solid STEM lessons of research and implementation, and it’s great to see a young girl of color portrayed as a confident inventor (and rock star).
A solid introduction for an appealing new chapter-book character. (Graphic science fiction. 5-7)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-58289-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“Another game called on account of spaghetti.” Aarrrgh. Or conversely, yup, git along. Good fun, regardless of the dialect.
Cowboys and Pirates aren’t just team names in this brangle on the base paths.
With the “score knotted at 47 runs” each in the 22nd inning, Long John Silver uncorks a long fly to center: “The Cisco Kid’s gonna have to giddy-up if he wants to catch this ball!” Using scratchboard with oil glazes, Summers portrays melodramatically posed figures in lavishly detailed costuming. He even mounts both infielders and outfielders on charging horses and gives literal expression to such terms as “on deck” (ship’s deck, that is) and “bullpen.” It looks like the stage is set for a rousing, benches-clearing brawl after Silver’s attempt to steal second base and the ensuing exchange of insults (“Yer boys play like Barbies,” sneers the Pirates’ captain, Capt. Hook). Thankfully, a summons to dinner forces the lad who has been heretofore invisibly orchestrating it all to reluctantly abandon his suddenly tiny action figures.
“Another game called on account of spaghetti.” Aarrrgh. Or conversely, yup, git along. Good fun, regardless of the dialect. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-56846-210-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
The wildfire is all that sparks here.
A black bear ushers her two cubs through their first seasonal round.
The writer and the illustrator both turn in bland, uninspired work. Frequently inserting intrusive or unnatural sound effects—“Ooh-Ooh-Coo! Ooh-Ooh-Coo! The twins nurse on milk thicker than cream, their little motors thrumming until they sleep”—Wadsworth leads the three bears out of the den to munch late-winter grass. Later, Bear rescues her cubs from an icy creek (“Crack! Snap! Whoosh! Roar!”) and in summer, drives off a male bear. Suddenly it’s autumn: the bears flee a wildfire, gobble up acorns, and then, as snow falls, squeeze back into the cozy den. With similar lack of variety or feeling, San Souci poses his bears in generic woods and meadows, oddly oblivious both to a line of tourists standing a few feet away in one scene and, in another, to glaring headlights while lumbering (not, as the narrative has it, “dashing”) across a road. In the confrontation scene he also neglects to pick up on the author’s remark in her concluding note that female bears are “much smaller” than males. David Martin’s Shh! Bears Sleeping, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher (2015) is just one of several livelier traverses of similar territory.
The wildfire is all that sparks here. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-930238-66-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Yosemite Conservancy
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
