An em-paw-ering read for young pups.
Learning to read isn’t so scary when Mighty Reader’s around.
Shy, new student Hugo—a brown puppy with black ears—searches for a friend on the bus. He ends up in an open seat next to bulldog Barkley, who’s reading a book about a superhero named Mighty Reader. When the canine students get to school, substitute teacher Ms. Wulff (a wolf, naturally) prepares the students for an author visit—from Will Hillenbrand. When Ms. Wulff asks Barkley to read the visiting author’s latest book, Spring Is Here (a real book from 2011), Barkley freezes. Sensing distress, Hugo heads to the dress-up center and secretly dons a Mighty Reader costume. As Mighty Reader, Hugo offers Barkley encouraging advice: “Look for words you know,” or “Think about what is happening in the pictures.” Barkley regains confidence and finishes the read-aloud just as Hillenbrand (as a schnauzer) introduces his work and artistic process. The comic-book layout, with at most four panels per page, combines minimal narration with speech bubbles. Hillenbrand’s expressive canine cartoons, boldly outlined in black against solid-color backgrounds, practically jump off the page. Some sentences are on the complex side, but the strong picture-to-text relationship will aid in decoding. Though the metafictive elements smack of gimmickry and self-promotion, readers may enjoy spotting the covers and pages of Hillenbrand’s other texts within this one.
An em-paw-ering read for young pups. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3992-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Desperation confused for hysterics.
Harris’ latest makes an urgent plea for somber reflection.
“Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!” Right from the get-go, readers are presented with three rules for reading this book (“Don’t look at this book!” “Do look at your listener!” “Get your listener to look at you!”). But the true lesson is in the title itself: If anyone listening to this book laughs, you have to start it all over. Challenge accepted? Good. Sheer frenetic energy propels what passes for a narrative as the book uses every trick up its sleeve to give kids the giggles. Silly names, ridiculous premises, and kooky art combine, all attempting some level of hilarity. Bloch’s art provides a visual cacophony of collaged elements, all jostling for the audience’s attention. Heavily influenced by similar fourth wall–busting titles like The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992) by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith, and the more contemporary The Book With No Pictures (2014) by B.J. Novak, these attempts to win over readers and make them laugh will result in less giggles than one might imagine. In the end, the ultimate success of this book may rest less on the art or text and more on the strength of the reader’s presentation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Desperation confused for hysterics. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-42488-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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
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