A number-one hit!
A cartoonish bespectacled owl-like creature provides advice both serious and tongue-in-cheek for coping with a bladder accident at school.
“It can happen when you are sleeping. It can happen when you are in class. It can happen when you are sleeping in class.” These clever sentences show up, respectively, under three comical framed images featuring the protagonist along with other funny, anthropomorphic creatures. Next, Wilson lists reasons people might delay a trip to the bathroom and notes that they may have unsuccessfully tried “scientifically proven methods” to hold it in, including sitting very still and “the grab-and-hold.” A double-page spread with a urine-colored background shows a stain spreading over the cringing owl’s plaid trousers: “You peed your pants.” After Wilson reassures readers that “we’ve all been there,” the tips begin: “Create a distraction,” “hide the evidence,” and “find new clothes.” Hilarious, largely monochromatic artwork accompanies each suggestion—including the owl trying to wear, among other things, an inverted lampshade. Wilson’s witty, kindly tone will resonate with readers of preschool age and beyond. An image of the humiliated owl, forced by less-than-sympathetic adults to sit on a bubble-wrapped chair while awaiting clean clothes, is paired with a great zinger aimed at said grown-ups. The ending is equally strong—and surprisingly sweet. While other books use humor to downplay the mortification of peeing one’s pants, this one stands out by embracing the embarrassment and using that momentum to remove the stigma.
A number-one hit! (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781250910172
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sweet but misleading.
A plucky child becomes a space traveler.
Arceneaux was the first pediatric cancer survivor and the first with a prosthetic body part to become an astronaut, part of the first all-civilian space mission in 2021. The author, who in 2022 published the adult memoir Wild Ride and its 2023 adaptation for middle-grade readers, here shares her story with an even younger audience. Told in the third person, the narrative emphasizes the bravery she summoned as she coped with a cancer that left her with a prosthetic leg bone and knee (hinted at with an incision line in one illustration) and went on to become a space traveler. Curiously, Hayley and her astronaut colleagues are portrayed as children. They play with a “stuffed toy alien,” and in an imagined episode, Hayley ventures outside the spacecraft to perform a repair. Accompanied by softly hued illustrations with character designs that recall Precious Moments figurines, the narrative emphasizes familiar details of space travel that will appeal to children; both their bodies and their food float in zero gravity. The mission splashes down safely, and Hayley rushes to hug her mom. Though Arceneaux was the youngest astronaut to have orbited the Earth, she was an adult when she did so. The odd choice to depict her as a child reduces her compelling story to a fantasy. Arceneaux is white; other characters are diverse.
Sweet but misleading. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593443903
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Convergent
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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