Chirpy the chick stows away on the school bus with a new feathered friend to learn about pizza…and, oh yes, arithmetic.
Though she avoids the attention of the racially diverse (and surprisingly oblivious) class, Chirpy sees addition, counting tally marks by groups, and fractions demonstrated before the children race out to recess, leaving 10 delectable pizza scraps for her to divide with her relentlessly curious companion Quackers the duckling. Some of that arithmetic comes in handy later when Chirpy heroically faces down Clucky, a bully who has been hogging the feeder, to show her awed fellow chicks how to divide the feed into equal piles so that everyone gets a fair share. Krulik loads her 10 easily digestible chapters with puns and jokes as well as nuggets of learning and caps the episode with a recipe for pizza muffins. Alder’s illustrations, monochrome with yellow highlights, feature a table showing different styles of tally marks commonly used in various parts of the world as well as images of cute chicks (and duckies). Chirpy is distinguished from the other nestlings by her rallying cry—“Chirp chirp cha-ree!”—and the bow on her head decorated in mathematical symbols.
STEM-ware, barnyard style, with a bit of math-odical problem-solving. (cast profiles) (Animal fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-64595-033-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Pixel+Ink
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
Did you like this book?
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
Did you like this book?
A pair of sisters and a froggy sidekick go up against a horde of fungal jungle dwellers in this frantically paced Canadian import.
When Mom transforms Dad into a cat, 10-year-old Luey, her leggy green friend, Phil, and little sister Miri chase him through a closet door and down a jungle path into a maze of tunnels. They manage to rescue their errant parent from the maroon-colored, cat-worshiping goblins that had overrun the garden. (They are not the “mythological” sort, explains Wilson, but sentient mushrooms dressed in towels.) The three put most of their pursuers to flight by rubbing Dad’s fur the wrong way to turn him into a raving, furry maniac (the rest flee at the closet door, screaming “IT’S THE MOM CREATURE! RETREAT!!”). Captured in multiple, sometimes overly small panels of garishly colored cartoon art, the action—not to mention the internal logic—is sometimes hard to follow. Still, dragging along their timorous but canny buddy, the dark-skinned, big-haired sisters dash into danger with commendable vim, and readers will cheer when they come out triumphant on the other side.
This high-wattage debut is a little rough around the edges, but there’s nary a dull moment. (afterword) (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-927668-11-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Koyama Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
Did you like this book?
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
