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AMBER BROWN IS NOT A CRAYON

Name: AMBER BROWN IS NOT A CRAYON
Author: Paula Danziger
ISBN: 0-399-22509-9

by Paula Danziger & illustrated by Tony Ross ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 13, 1994

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As Amber tells he, teasing third-grade classmates, she's not a crayon color but a girl — messy but well adjusted, lucky in a teacher who makes a game of studying other countries, trying to forget that best-friend Justin is moving to Alabama as soon as his parents can sell their house. When they do, Justin and Amber — whose own parents' divorce makes this new separation even more painful — fall into a silly quarrel; still, with a little sympathetic encouragement from the adults, they realize that its true cause is their dejection about the move and make up just before Justin leaves. The familiar story is nicely individualized in Amber's buoyant, authentically childlike narration; it's grand to have Danziger add books for younger readers to her many popular titles for the older crowd. (Fiction. 6-9)

Pub Date: April 13, 1994

ISBN: 0-399-22509-9

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
AMBER BROWN IS NOT A CRAYON
by Paula Danziger ; adapted by Victoria Ying ; illustrated by Victoria Ying ; color by Lynette Wong

- BOOK REVIEW
AMBER BROWN IS ON THE MOVE
by Paula Danziger ; Bruce Coville ; Elizabeth Levy ; illustrated by Anthony Lewis

- BOOK REVIEW
BARFBURGER BABY, I WAS HERE FIRST
by Paula Danziger & illustrated by G. Brian Karas

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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THE DOT

by Peter H. Reynolds & illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2003

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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)