Brave—and not so brave—hikers will giggle at this class’s brush with peril.
Signs say a Grizzled Grist hides in the woods. Should Ms. Whisk and her class be afraid?
Optimistically, they forge ahead on the Dismal Hills hiking trail anyway. Ms. Whisk takes notes as her students, except for Liam, boast of great outdoor skills, such as cooking, climbing, and taming wild beasts. Liam’s talent is hiding. The other students scoff, but Liam puts his stealth to good use; as he hides behind rocks, he notices a sign about the Grizzled Grist and observes other clues. But his warnings are ignored as the clueless and frazzled Ms. Whisk races from one wilderness crisis to another. Everyone remains unscathed and unfazed—until they meet a bear. Liam distracts the creature, but soon after, Ms. Whisk and the class come face to face with a toothy, hairy beast. They are doomed to be ingredients in the Grizzled Grist’s Cream of Children Soup unless Liam can save them. Detailed illustrations in soft textures and muted but eye-catching hues set against a white background create plenty of fun opportunities to find Liam and see what only he notices. Using a mix of rhyming couplets (with dialogue from Liam in speech bubbles) and longer stanzas as well as creative line breaks, MacIver creates a bouncy read-aloud that will tickle children and adults alike. Ms. Whisk is light-skinned, Liam is brown-skinned, and the class is diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Brave—and not so brave—hikers will giggle at this class’s brush with peril. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77657-415-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
Chilling in the best ways.
When a young rabbit who’s struggling in school finds a helpful crayon, everything is suddenly perfect—until it isn’t.
Jasper is flunking everything except art and is desperate for help when he finds the crayon. “Purple. Pointy…perfect”—and alive. When Jasper watches TV instead of studying, he misspells every word on his spelling test, but the crayon seems to know the answers, and when he uses the crayon to write, he can spell them all. When he faces a math quiz after skipping his homework, the crayon aces it for him. Jasper is only a little creeped out until the crayon changes his art—the one area where Jasper excels—into something better. As guilt-ridden Jasper receives accolade after accolade for grades and work that aren’t his, the crayon becomes more and more possessive of Jasper’s attention and affection, and it is only when Jasper cannot take it anymore that he discovers just what he’s gotten himself into. Reynolds’ text might as well be a Rod Serling monologue for its perfectly paced foreboding and unsettling tension, both gentled by lightly ominous humor. Brown goes all in to match with a grayscale palette for everything but the purple crayon—a callback to black-and-white sci-fi thrillers as much as a visual cue for nascent horror readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Chilling in the best ways. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6588-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
