Will help parents solve a perennial problem with humor and empower children to turn cluttered rooms into neat ones.
Porcupine Pete knows just how to fix Rabbit’s problem.
Rabbit’s room is a mess—Rabbit can’t go “hippity-hoppity” without stepping on something. But Porcupine Pete is here to help. Porcupine Pete’s ideas range in success. Carefully folding all of Rabbit’s shirts is a good idea, but feeding those shirts to the goldfish is not—despite Porcupine Pete’s enthusiastic “PROBLEM SOLVED!” Luckily, Rabbit steps in and places the shirts neatly in the dresser. Stacking all the blocks helps tidy the room, but Pete’s suggestion of flushing them down the toilet is less than ideal. Again, Rabbit catches Pete in time and stows the toys safely. It’s unclear whether Pete has poor problem-solving skills or is using reverse psychology, but either way, Rabbit modifies each of Pete’s giggleworthy suggestions, and soon every object is in its rightful place. (Caregivers may pick up ideas for encouraging little ones to clean up their own rooms.) It looks like Pete is out of a job until the friends read a newspaper reporting that scientists on Mars are in need of help. Will the scientists there be able to cope with Porcupine Pete’s wild ideas? This goofy tale has just a few well-selected words per page; the text is primarily made up of speech bubbles. Thick-lined cartoon illustrations set against solid backgrounds are rich with emotion, action, and humor. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Will help parents solve a perennial problem with humor and empower children to turn cluttered rooms into neat ones. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781665939997
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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