A tale of familial warmth and strength, steeped in generations of tradition.
A young Korean girl overcomes her initial resistance to a long-standing birthday custom.
An unnamed child sits at the table, clearly disappointed by her mother’s offering of miyeok-guk, or seaweed soup. It’s “not the strawberry cake, not the chocolate cupcakes I want,” she pouts. But Mom explains that eating miyeok-guk is a tradition that goes back generations. “I had it every day for a month after you were born,” Mom notes. Grandmother prepared it for her as she recovered from childbirth—as did her mother, and the child’s great-great-grandma, who was a haenyeo, or freediver. Yum deftly sheds light on the legacy of freediving; women often brought their daughters along on dives and even dove while pregnant. A haenyeo who observed a whale eating seaweed after giving birth inspired the tradition of the soup. Now fully appreciating its significance, the girl savors her soup, much to the delight of her mother. Her bowl transforms into a seascape filled with women divers as she observes, “My birthday soup is miyeok-guk. It smells like grandma’s town. It tastes like my birthday.” Visible pencil marks and soft splashes of color give Yum’s illustrations a tender intimacy and a coziness befitting her gently told tribute to the ties that bind. An author’s note offers more information on the women who have dived for octopuses, seaweed, shellfish, and more for hundreds of years near Korea’s Jeju Island.
A tale of familial warmth and strength, steeped in generations of tradition. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781324053699
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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