Life is positively vexing for Lulu Atlantis at this particular moment in time. It isn’t enough that her father is constantly away saving various animal species from extinction, but now her mother has gone and had an unnecessary (to Lulu’s eyes) baby. With her best friend Harry at her side (a top-hatted spider who may just exist in Lulu’s imagination), Lulu decides to search for the True Blue Love she is certain she currently lacks. In the course of four stories she also makes the acquaintance of a tough-talking skunk, gangster bakers, a spoiled kitty and an Egg Man. A near tragedy at the end also teaches Lulu that love of this particular shade is sometimes closer to home than we realize. The “True Blue Love” conceit become tiresome, but Martin’s clever enough to pepper her twee sensibilities with honestly imaginative writing. There’s enough good old-fashioned curiosity and, quite frankly, weirdness in this early chapter book to overcome its potentially cutesy underpinnings. With descriptive sentences and a penchant for eclectic storytelling, this is an author to watch. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-375-84016-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2007
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Driven by the observation that most children lose their enthusiasm for making art as they get older, Reynolds prods a reluctant child into an eye-opening whirl of creativity. Asserting that she’s no artist, Vashti angrily responds to a teacher’s mild suggestion by dashing a small mark onto a big sheet of paper, then signing it. Seeing that sheet in a frame the next day, she mutters, “Hmmph! I can make a better dot than THAT!”—and proceeds to fill sheet after sheet with glorious arrays of splotches and blotches. In his own freely drawn pictures, Reynolds sets off Vashti’s colorful creations by hanging them, in the subsequent art show, in front of human figures defined by neutral-toned washes. And Vashti passes on her new-found insight at the end, inviting a young admirer who ruefully claims that he can’t draw a straight line to make a squiggle and sign it. This isn’t going to create interest where there is none, but it may speak to formerly artistic young readers who are selling their own abilities short. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7636-1961-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2003
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