Twenty-six monsters, alphabetically arranged, enjoy a day at school in this cheerful offering. “Ann has alligator skin, / Bud grows toadstools on his chin,” Leuck begins. Parkins’s bright, offbeat illustrations, which stand out against a white background, have massive kid-appeal. They also add another dimension to the story. In a double-page spread for the letters K and L, for example, Parkins turns Kendra, whose “tail is spiked and strong” into an ungainly green dino in a frilly tutu. Lucy, whose “tongue is ten feet long,” is an anteater-type creature who uses that appendage to grip a marker for drawing. It’s a stretch to call this an alphabet book, however. Aside from the monsters’ names, there aren’t any other letter/word associations to be made. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-8118-3509-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS
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A “scaredy-spud” puts on his brave face.
All “mutant potatoes” love mud. Mud is good for playing games, eating, and even sleeping. But few taters have more tender feelings toward muck than Rot. À la Pete the Cat, Rot celebrates mud in song: “Mud between my toes! / Mud in my nose! / Mud is GREAT / wherever it GOES!” When Rot’s big brother, Snot, tells Rot about the Squirm that lives “deep down in the mushy muck,” his love quickly turns to fear. But he doesn’t give up! Instead, Rot imagines himself in various disguises to work up courage. There’s “Super Spud” (a superhero), “Sir Super Rot, the Brave and Bold” (a superhero-knight), and even “Sir Super Rot the Pigtato” (a, um, superhero-knight-pig-potato). The disguises are one thing, but, deep down, is Rot really brave enough to face the Squirm? Readers wooed by Rot’s charm in Rot: The Cutest in the World (2017) will laugh out loud at this well-paced encore—and it’s not just because of the butt cracks. Clanton creates a winning dynamic, balancing Rot’s earnestness, witty dialogue, and an omniscient, slightly melodramatic narrator. The cartoon illustrations were created using watercolors, colored pencils, digital collage, and—brilliantly—potato stamps. Clanton’s reliance on earth tones makes for some clever, surprising page turns when the palette is broken.
Cute and brave—gee, Rot’s spud-tacular! (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6764-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Here is a basic lesson in geometrical shapes disguised as entertainment. It aspires to nothing more, and just barely succeeds on its own modest level. The premise is that a busy triangle gets tired of its life and goes to a shapeshifter for an extra angle. Life as a quadrilateral is exciting for a while, but soon the protagonist requires another angle, and—the etceteras take readers through the final two-thirds of the story. Burns (The I Hate Mathematics! Book, Little, 1975, etc.) is wise enough to summarize everything past the hexagon stage. Notes on mathematics for adults working with children appear in the final pages. Newcomer Silveria takes the obvious approach to the illustrator's quandary—how to humanize an abstraction—by adding cute oval eyes and chubby cheeks. His creation comes off like a candidate for the Olympic mascot tryouts; he has a good color sense, and goes full throttle on every page. This installment of the ``Marilyn Burns Brainy Day'' series is static, simplistic, and too long by half—but finding fault with it as a work of art is like looking for character development in a Barney episode. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-590-48991-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS
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