Any heavy-handedness in the application of the moral is balanced by youthful art and the emphasis on confidence and respect.
A young taekwondo student deals with bullying in this all-animal graphic-novel offering co-published by the American Taekwondo Association.
Young tiger Baeoh finds himself the target of a trio of lunch-stealing jackals who pick on him outside of class. While his fellow animal students clearly know what’s going on, he stubbornly denies it, lying about his vulnerability and refusing help. Ironically, he also fails to see his own bullying treatment of his new training partner, an intellectual bear named Karhu, until other students point it out to him and even Karhu stands up to Baeoh. The story climaxes on Buddy Day; Baeoh’s lies have obliged him to invite the jackals, and Baeoh finally takes his own stand in a brief physical confrontation. The character designs feature large heads, bold lines, and animated expressions—though some readers may struggle to differentiate among the jackals and continuity is occasionally inconsistent. Overall, though, the full-color art does a good job at providing visual narration, especially in demonstrating brown-belt cobra Narsha’s legless tail “kicks.” Profiles in the backmatter give a rundown on all Team Taekwondo members. Befitting taekwondo’s origins, they all seem to have Korean names. They speak colloquial English, and other characters have Western names.
Any heavy-handedness in the application of the moral is balanced by youthful art and the emphasis on confidence and respect. (Graphic fantasy. 6-10)Pub Date: April 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62336-947-7
Page Count: 108
Publisher: Rodale Kids
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that.
Beatrice Zinker is a kinder, gentler Judy Moody.
Beatrice doesn’t want to be fit in a box. Her first word was “WOW,” not “Mom.” She does her best thinking upside down and prefers to dress like a ninja. Like Judy Moody, she has patient parents and a somewhat annoying younger brother. (She also has a perfectly ordinary older sister.) Beatrice spends all summer planning a top-secret spy operation complete with secret codes and a secret language (pig Latin). But on the first day of third grade, her best friend, Lenny (short for Eleanor), shows up in a dress, with a new friend who wants to play veterinarian at recess. Beatrice, essentially a kind if somewhat quirky kid, struggles to see the upside of the situation and ends up with two friends instead of one. Line drawings on almost every spread add to the humor and make the book accessible to readers who might otherwise balk at its 160 pages. Thankfully, the rhymes in the text do not continue past the first chapter. Children will enjoy the frequent puns and Beatrice’s preference for climbing trees and hanging upside down. The story drifts dangerously close to pedantry when Beatrice asks for advice from a grandmotherly neighbor but is saved by likable characters and upside-down cake. Beatrice seems to be white; Lenny’s surname, Santos, suggests that she may be Latina; their school is a diverse one.
A kind child in a book for middle-grade readers? There’s no downside to that. (Fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-6738-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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