An unnecessary stink-quel.
Gassy friends save the day in this follow-up to No One Likes a Fart (2019).
BFFs Burp and Fart—clouds rendered, respectively, in hues of purple and brown—float about, offending everyone with their pungent odors. Burp begins to feel bad about that, so she rolls around in flower petals. That doesn’t help; a young couple still turn up their noses when she wafts by. On her way back to Fart, Burp’s smell drives off some bullies who are tormenting a smaller girl. Burp tells Fart about it, and they decide to don capes and become superheroes. When they see a crook (wearing a mask and a black-and-white outfit) stealing a car, they float into the car and stink him out. They continue to do super-stinky good deeds until they find a kindergarten in danger of being crushed by a falling tree in a storm. They try to evacuate the building, but they aren’t stinky enough. (The kids and teachers have smelled far worse.) Fart has a great idea: Get Sewage Gas to help. Sewie, who inexplicably speaks in broken English, gets everyone to leave and saves the day. Blake’s forced, flat fable of flatulence won’t inspire much tittering beyond the first toot. Nickel’s illustrations of humans of varying skin tones resemble Saturday morning cartoons, but the speech bubbles, full of attempted potty humor, add little. Most readers will wish this Australian import had stayed Down Under like the emissions that inspired it.
An unnecessary stink-quel. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9780593753118
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A disappointing follow-up.
Inventor Izzy Gizmo is back in this sequel to her eponymous debut (2017).
While busily inventing one day, Izzy receives an invitation from the Genius Guild to their annual convention. Though Izzy’s “inventions…don’t always work,” Grandpa (apparently her sole caregiver) encourages her to go. The next day they undertake a long journey “over fields, hills, and waves” and “mile after mile” to isolated Technoff Isle. There, Izzy finds she must compete against four other kids to create the most impressive machine. The colorful, detail-rich illustrations chronicle how poor Izzy is thwarted at every turn by Abi von Lavish, a Veruca Salt–esque character who takes all the supplies for herself. But when Abi abandons her project, Izzy salvages the pieces and decides to take Grandpa’s advice to create a machine that “can really be put to good use.” A frustrated Izzy’s impatience with a friend almost foils her chance at the prize, but all’s well that ends well. There’s much to like: Brown-skinned inventor girl Izzy is an appealing character, it’s great to see a nurturing brown-skinned male caregiver, the idea of an “Invention Convention” is fun, and a sustainable-energy invention is laudable. However, these elements don’t make up for rhymes that often feel forced and a lackluster story.
A disappointing follow-up. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68263-164-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
The visual details invite interaction, making it a good choice for storytime or solo inspection.
It’s a quiet day, until….
“I have a bot!” An excited child’s happiness is short-lived, for the remote-controlled toy escapes its wireless tether and begins an ascent up the side of a skyscraper. The building’s doorman launches a race to recover the bot, and soon everyone wants to help. Attempts to retrieve the bot, which is rendered as a red rectangle with a propeller, arms, and a rudimentary face, go from the mundanity of a broom to the absurd—a bright orange beehive hairdo and a person-sized Venus’ flytrap are just some of the silly implements the building’s occupants use to try to rein in the bot. Each double-page spread reveals another level of the building—and further visual hijinks—as the bot makes its way to the top, where an unexpected hero waits (keep an eye out for falling bananas). The tall, narrow trim size echoes the shape of the skyscraper, providing a sense of height as the bot rises. Text is minimal; short declarations in tidy black dialogue bubbles with white courier-style typeface leave the primary-colored, blocky art to effectively carry the story. Facial expressions—both human and bot—are comically spot-on. The bot-owning child has light skin, and there are several people of color among those trying to rescue the bot. One person wears a kufi.
The visual details invite interaction, making it a good choice for storytime or solo inspection. (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: July 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-425-28881-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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