One day, a visitor comes to Abdul’s class Mr. Abdul decides that his stories are not for books. But whenever he tries to write down his stories in a notebook, spelling rules confuse him, and his “scribbly, scratchy, scrawly letters” never stay on the lines. 4-6)Ī young Black boy struggles with writing-until a special guest visits his class.Ībdul loves to tell stories about the people in his neighborhood, and his friends at school love hearing them. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. ![]() Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. 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. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. 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. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “ Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. 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. (author’s note, glossary, more information, activities)Įchoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. (This book was reviewed digitally.)Ī sweet story without much else to offer. However, the characters lack personality, the girl in particular being just a pedagogic device, and the narrative is not especially engaging. The book’s lesson-that we should appreciate the beauty of our own surroundings-is sweet and gentle. The boy has light skin and dark hair, and the girl has light skin and light hair. Rendered in a muted palette, the art is simple and cozy. Finally, they sit down together to draw a map of their town, which is just what the girl wanted all along. She takes him around their idyllic little town like a baby Manic Pixie Dream Girl, showing him the warm sunbeams in the library, the delicious-smelling bakery, and all the other little comforts of home. ![]() It is frustratingly apparent that she already knows what she wants but for some reason wishes to teach the Mapmaker a lesson. ![]() But the girl, it seems, already has a plan. Her requirements become more and more abstract, and the Mapmaker has no idea what to do. Though he loves creating all kinds of maps in his treehouse office, he is perplexed by her requests that he find and map a place with warm sand and hiding spots for treasure. A little boy known as the Mapmaker is stumped when a girl asks him for a special map.
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