Character development and nuance enhance a simple, action-oriented plot.
Unicorn Guardians Ruby and Iris compete in a race to determine the better rider.
After a near collision on unicorn-back, sisters Ruby and Iris argue about who is at fault: Iris thinks Ruby needs to watch out while Ruby thinks Iris too fearful a rider. Their friend Cole, the Dragon Guardian, suggests a contest to resolve the conflict. He proposes that they race across the Diamond Desert to the Lotus Oasis, where they can find the Lotus Gem—the first to retrieve it wins. Ruby chooses a unicorn for size and strength; Iris opts for a smart unicorn who can “think fast and avoid trouble.” While Ruby’s desire for speed causes costly mistakes, she still manages to overtake Iris and, with single-minded focus, reach the gem first—triggering a calamity. Unable to outrun the trouble she’s accidentally caused, Ruby is lucky that Iris and her clever mount are there to guide her to safety. Ultimately, Ruby thinks Iris is the better rider for listening to her mount while Iris points out that Ruby was on track to win their contest as the faster rider. Discussion questions at the end of the book ask readers which skill is more important, riding fast or riding smart, but the text itself doesn’t denigrate Ruby’s talents to push a moral, landing on an ending that’s both ambiguous and joyful. Illustrated characters present White. Series companions Unique Unicorn, Starberry Magic, and Shadow Stallion publish simultaneously.
Character development and nuance enhance a simple, action-oriented plot. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63163-513-7
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If James Marshall’s George and Martha were not hippos and were both girls, they would be much like best friends Bink and Gollie in this charming early-reader series debut. Tall, quirkily formal Gollie says “Greetings”; the shorter, more casual Bink just says hello. Gollie uses words like “compromise” and “implore”; Bink needs to learn them fast to keep up. Three winsome short stories—“Don’t You Need a New Pair of Socks?,” “P.S. I’ll Be Back Soon” and “Give a Fish a Home”—illustrate the eminently surmountable challenges to Bink and Gollie’s friendship in rapid-fire dialogue that manages to be both witty and earnest. Fucile’s terrific, cartoonish artwork is expressive and hilarious—black-and-white scratchy lines and washes that effectively use spot color to highlight, say, alarmingly hideous rainbow socks or the faint underwater orange of a freshly liberated pet goldfish. One favorite wordless spread shows Bink holding up her goldfish bowl at the movie theater so her fish-friend can see Mysteries of the Deep Blue Sea… seated next to a mortified Gollie. More, please! (Early reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3266-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
An undistinguished addition to the infuriatingly overstuffed shelves of anger-management treatises.
Pout-Pout goes off the deep end.
Plainly afflicted with anger issues, Mr. Fish leverages a broken knickknack, difficulty finding glue, and the mild reactions of his neighbors to his plight into a towering, out-of-control tantrum. Mrs. Squid offers a tried-and-true (though, at least for a fish, physically impossible) counterstrategy: “To get started, simply breathe. / Then slowly count from one to ten / To counteract the seethe.” Miss Shimmer, another fish, suggests using his words to talk out his feelings…which he does (though only in the pictures, as Diesen declines to use her words to describe what he actually says). Finally, “with words and self-compassion / I bring anger to a stop,” and once he’s gotten his “grrrrr” out, the glue even turns up so that in no time fish and fracture are both “good as new.” Unlike the “seethe” in Molly Bang’s When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry… (1999) or Polly Dunbar’s Red Red Red (2020), the rage here comes across as manufactured rather than genuine—and the coping techniques are more described in general terms than actually demonstrated. Hanna’s cartoon cast of fancifully colored deep-sea denizens is as googly-eyed as ever. He adds some amusing details, as with the labels on Mr. Fish’s storage bins (“Might Need Someday” and “Not Sure will look later”), but the souvenir from “Machoo Poochy” is an unfortunate choice. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
An undistinguished addition to the infuriatingly overstuffed shelves of anger-management treatises. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-30935-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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