Malhotra’s debut book for young readers offers a sweet story about a star who falls in love.
Like a traditional fairy tale, this book begins with a princess and her father, the king. The twist is that the princess, Shine, is a young star, and her father, Prime Ray, is a celestial being who rules the universe. Despite having everything she can possibly want, Shine is filled with loneliness. With the help of her magical guardian, Zydaar, she searches the cosmos for what she might be missing. Her gaze happens to fall on Earth and an enchanted forest where tiny elfin creatures called Poofys live; each has a distinct “poof” of hair on his head, sharp teeth and slight limbs. Protected by a fairy spell and watched over by an ancient being who’s taken the form of a jaguar, the Poofys have gone undetected by humans who live nearby. As a result, their world is an innocent paradise in which the most dangerous threat is a rain shower. One of the Poofys, Goom’pa, catches Shine’s eye, and she’s overcome by love. Illustrations would have greatly enhanced the text, as it may be difficult for readers to visualize the Poofys and the other characters. However, the Poofys’ misadventures will make entertaining bedtime reading for younger kids, who will be tickled by their silly names, such as D’uh and Sadsak. The cutesiness of their antics, as they spend their days searching for “munchies,” taking “nappies” and suffering “bonkies,” may soon wear thin for older readers, though. Although there are hints that the Poofys may encounter trouble if they stray from their community, this is a gentle story with no real conflict. Even when the stars confront power struggles in their celestial realm, which promises more excitement, the situations are generally nonthreatening and quickly resolved. Goom’pa and Shine are guaranteed a happily-ever-after ending, but it’s one that promises more adventures to follow.
A generally charming, if sometimes overly sweet, bedtime story for children.
Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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