An inclusive embrace of a brain that was built for building.
A boy struggles to focus on anything other than building things in Hoffman’s picture book.
Marcus is a little boy with a mop of curly black hair and brown skin. He loves to build things with blocks, pencils, library books, sticks, and rope; if Marcus can touch it, he can create something with it. The trouble is, Marcus’ penchant for making towers, bridges, rocket ships, zip lines, and palaces distracts him from doing other important things—like math, spelling, and playing with the other children. Ms. Anderson, Marcus’ teacher, asks the class to design a blueprint for a new school playground. When it’s time to present their designs, everyone shows off their drawings, except for Marcus; he has built a whole marvelous model of a playground. Mello’s digital cartoon illustrations are brightly colored and show Marcus’ myriad of marvels and the materials from which they were cleverly engineered, providing detail for the story. The prose is measured in describing the external world of daily life, but when Marcus gets a new idea, the pace picks up speed: “As he pulled out his pencil, the blocks in the corner caught his attention. // Suddenly, his busy brain shifted. // He got out of his chair, a builder on a mission. // He was inspired!” The story’s conclusion stands out for its celebration of Marcus’ unconventional worldview.
An inclusive embrace of a brain that was built for building.Pub Date: March 17, 2025
ISBN: 9781998751310
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Wishing Star Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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