The Case of the Incapacitated Capitals

Booklist starred (October 1, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 3))


Preschool-Grade 3. Mr. Wright’s students write a letter to cheer up their despondent teacher, but the idea backfires when they use no capital letters. “You’ve forgotten something important,” he prods them, noting that letter writing is different from texting. After a couple of lame guesses and an off-topic discussion of Mr. Wright’s childhood nickname, the now-fuming teacher informs them that certain words need to be capitalized. When the classroom’s capitals are found to be incapacitated (paramedics diagnose “a case of serious neglect”), the children learn their lesson, use the capitals properly, and earn a hilarious prize. Three appended pages explain why capital letters are called “uppercase,” show why each capital is used within a color-coded letter, and list some “useful rules” for capitalization. In the funniest picture book yet from Pulver and Reed’s Language Arts Library series, the students are well meaning, easily distracted, and not without cunning. Childlike acrylic paintings combine with digital elements to make the artwork vivid and colorful. From the conversations between uppercase and lowercase letters to the comedy within class discussions, it’s hard to read the story aloud without laughing, and the humor makes the lesson more likely to stick. A madcap grammar book for kids to enjoy.

Benny and Penny in Lights Out!

Kirkus Reviews starred (August 1, 2012)


It's bedtime for the mouseling brother and sister--but not before plenty of horsing around and a deliciously scary expedition into the backyard. As little Penny quietly tries to wash up and pretend-read a story ("One day the princess was sent to her room for being bratty. But she had a secret door..."), her restless big brother interrupts obnoxiously with warnings about the Boogey Mouse, loud belches and other distractions. When Benny realizes that he's left his prized pirate hat in the backyard, though, Penny braves the Boogey Mouse to follow him out of the window and prod him into reclaiming it from the spooky, dark playhouse. She also "reads" him to sleep after the two race, giggling at their fright, back indoors. Framed in sequential panels that occasionally expand to full-page or double-spread scenes, the art features a pair of big-eared, bright-eyed mites (plus the occasional fictive dinosaur) in cozy domestic settings atmospherically illuminated by the glow of lamps, Benny's flashlight and the moon. As in this popular series' earlier episodes, dialogue in unobtrusive balloons furnishes the only text, but the action is easy to follow, and Hayes provides plenty of finely drawn visual cues to the characters' feelings. Another outing positively radiant with child appeal, featuring a pair of close siblings with complementary personalities. (Graphic early reader. 5-7)

My Robots: The Robotic Genius of Lady Regina Bonquers III

Kirkus Reviews (September 15, 2012)


The creator of useful field guides to monsters (2007) and aliens (2010) turns his attention to an eccentric Scottish inventor's mechanical fancies. Along with images of taped- or tacked-on rough sketches, scrawled notes, product brochures and schematic diagrams purportedly discovered in Lady Regina Bonquers III's mysteriously abandoned castle near Loch MeeAhwey, Olander offers descriptions of over 23 marvelous machines. These range from a 40-foot-tall, garbage-recycling Crocobot Compactor and the protean household helper Chore Master X2000 to a pocket-sized Personal Grooming Robot equipped with pimple popper. Skating even closer to the boundaries of good taste, he also presents a tall and soft-bodied "Hugging Robot" built by the solitary Lady as her personal comfort object. Thanks largely to programming glitches and, often, attendant bad publicity, none of Lady Bonquers' ingenious creations enjoyed commercial success, alas. Nevertheless, budding inventors may find inspiration in these pages (if not specific instructions or even clear details) for labor- and life-saving robots of their own. According to the author, Lady Bonquers is still remembered in "the international circle of pseudoscientists and mad geniuses." Here's hoping that this tribute will expand her renown to a wider audience. (Fiction. 10-12)

Ralph Tells A Story

Kirkus Reviews (September 1, 2012)


With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer's block in this engaging debut. Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher's assertion that "Stories are everywhere!" Ralph can't get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That's all he has, though, until his classmates' questions--"Did it feel squishy?" "Did your mom let you keep it?" "Did you name it?"--open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children's dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories ("When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti," "The Scariest Hamster," "When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me," etc.) on the back endpapers. An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)

Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow?

School Library Journal (June 1, 2011)


PreS-Gr 2-This standout concept book is engaging, fun, and interactive. It begins by explaining that, "Some things grow/like you and me./Others stay the way/they're made./Until they crack, or rust,/or fade." Simple, spare rhyming text flows smoothly with illustrations that follow on pages that include die cuts and flaps; "If a kitten grows,/becomes a cat,/can a cap grow and become. a hat?" The answers are provided at the end. Layers of painted paper collage are done in a brightly colored palette, including end pages with bold paintbrush stripes in primary and secondary colors. White space is creatively used, but the flaps and die cuts steal the show. For example, the spread featuring snakes in saturated black, yellow, and green pops on the white background. A pickup truck grows to be a rig when the flap is opened. The flatbed becomes the trailer enhanced with a pattern that resembles the American flag. Readers will be challenged by the questions and some unusual words for the names of a few baby animals: a kit, an owlet, a kid, and a joey. This clever title begs for multiple readings and will be a favorite in storytimes or in one-on-one settings. Spot-on.-Anne Beier, Clifton Public Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Black Dog

Kirkus Reviews starred (May 15, 2012)


Pinfold's story has a timeless quality despite its entirely original flair, with sumptuous paintings and thumbnail embellishments adding narrative and descriptive content. One by one, the Hope family spies a black dog outside their home, each person describing it as larger and more fearsome than the next. They all proceed to hide from the dog, until "the youngest member of the Hope family, called Small (for short)," steps outside to confront it herself. While her family cowers inside, Small bravely approaches the shaggy beast, who appears quite large indeed in the tempera paintings. A sense of folkloric magic underscores the confrontation as this youngest of three siblings cajoles the dog to follow her on a journey through the woods, under a bridge, over a frozen pond and through a playground. All along, she entreats it to shrink in size, and it does, until it is small enough to fit through a doggy door back at her house. Once they are inside, Small's family welcomes the dog and praises her bravery. "There was nothing to be scared of," she succinctly replies. The closing scene showing Small and the dog cozy by the fire, alongside a thumbnail portrait of the family by the text, leaves readers with a satisfying image of familial contentment. A great pick for storytime, bedtime, anytime. (Picture book. 3-7)

The Unforgotten Coat

Booklist (September 1, 2011 (Vol. 108, No. 1))


Grades 3-6. With both humor and sorrow, this chapter book tells a contemporary refugee story in which illegal immigrants help a local kid find a sense of belonging. When Mongolian Chingis and his younger brother, Nergui, turn up in Julie’s sixth-grade class in Bootle, near Liverpool, they ask her to be their guide in “learning themselves ordinary.” They ask about the rules of football and the right buzzwords, and Chingis tells Julie about the exotic wonders of Genghis Khan’s Xanadu and shows her, and the reader, amazing Polaroids of nomads in the desert. In her first-person narrative, Julie describes the moving friendship, and even while the brothers hide from authorities, they help Julie learn to see the strange and wonderful in her own home, especially after she discovers that their “exotic” pictures were taken right where she lives, in the nearby fields and alleyways. Inspired by the many photo images throughout the story, readers will see the riches in the smallest details—even schoolyard trash cans.