Tired readers may empathize with Hildie, but there’s not much here to help them get to sleep.
A young witch in need of some shut-eye learns that diplomacy and problem-solving work wonders in dealing with noisy neighbors.
Hildie is a girl with a routine. Every night the red-haired white girl brushes her teeth, puts away her spell book, and goes to bed with her cat, Clawdia. But recently, her rest has been thwarted by her neighbors. Though they are never specifically referred to by name or by fairy tale, they will nonetheless be familiar to young readers: a giant whose beanstalk elevator rattles and clanks, a family in a shoe-shaped trailer with a racially diverse brood that plays baseball all night long, and a wolf who accidentally blows the roof off Hildie’s house. Exasperated, Hildie decides to move, turning to the classifieds in the Daily Witch for inspiration. Rat Realty’s owner, Monty, suggests two rentals, but neither gives Hildie a full night’s sleep. His third property is Hildie’s own home, and she finally tries some diplomacy with her neighbors. While the witch cleverly pairs her neighbors’ issues with her own failed solutions (the three tinkering blind mice fix the elevator), the story lacks the sparkle and wit of Newman’s first outing. Ewald, in his picture-book debut, folds in lots of references to other fairy tales and nursery rhymes, but several of his digital spreads are too dark to make out details.
Tired readers may empathize with Hildie, but there’s not much here to help them get to sleep. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-939547-23-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pedestrian.
Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.
Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up.
In Murray’s children’s debut, when a gingerbread man made by schoolchildren gets left behind at recess, he decides he has to find his class: “I’ll run and I’ll run, / As fast as I can. / I can catch them! I’m their / Gingerbread Man!”
And so begins his rollicking rhyming adventure as he runs, limps, slides and skips his way through the school, guided on his way by the friendly teachers he meets. Flattened by a volleyball near the gym, he gets his broken toe fixed by the kindly nurse and then slides down the railing into the art teacher’s lunch. Then it’s off to the principal’s office, where he takes a spin in her chair before she arrives. “The children you mentioned just left you to cool. / They’re hanging these posters of you through the school.” The principal takes him back to the classroom, where the children all welcome him back. The book’s comic-book layout suits the elementary-school tour that this is, while Lowery’s cartoon artwork fits the folktale theme. Created with pencil, screen printing and digital color, the simple illustrations give preschoolers a taste of what school will be like. While the Gingerbread Man is wonderfully expressive, though, the rather cookie-cutter teachers could use a little more life.
Teachers looking for a new way to start off the school year will eat this one up. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25052-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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