shidoburrito's reviews
1533 reviews

This one I had to give all the stars to because it was a perfect artist biography with illustrations that children will love. Again, the artist doesn't over complicate her- wait, this is another Melissa Sweet! She's the illustrator for "Brave Girl", another Mock Caldecott title that I gave a high rating to. Huh, I guess I just really appreciate her style. She really seems to know how to draw people in with colorful drawings, mixed media swatches (this time it was paper swatches), and creating interesting, colorful spaces for the text. There were many more examples of her own text art with various quotes from Horace Pippin himself. I think in this case, the book was about an artist who just loved to draw and was at his happiest drawing anything. He also used art to convey the unhappy times in his life during the war. Perhaps the illustrator's child-like illustrations are meant to show young readers that they shouldn't be afraid to draw, no matter what their skill. All types of art are beautiful and to be appreciated. Even Melissa Sweet, whose figure drawing is no Reuben, but fun enough to get kids interested in art!

For such a little known woman in history (at least to me, because I think history is boring), they picked a great artist to illustrate this story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor. Bright colors are swirly and quick and scribbly, bringing action to the story. It looks like simple copic markers or inks, but I may be wrong. Tilted and exaggerated perspectives also bring it to life in a comic, fast-paced way. Oooh, this one is good too!

Oh good, this book was actually really cute and creative. While the artist is basic at drawing humans, Melissa Sweet captures the eye with bright colors and a mixed media of water colors, fabric swatches with patterns, and photocopied objects colored in with watercolor. She also makes great use of sewed cloth and fabrics for borders and text areas, making even the text part of the book a work of art. This one might be my pick for the Mock Caldecotts!

I guess I'm a tough critic when it comes to rating these Mock Caldecott titles for work. Did anyone else think the main character looked like PaRappa the Rapper? Anyway, while I enjoyed the water-color style, the people look like peanuts and rubber-necked legumes. Sooo, for a Caldecott, I'm not sure if kids would enjoy the oddly shaped people or not. I'm just super picky!

A simple story without words. At least I couldn't find any deeper meaning in the basic-shape-created characters. A boy without friends. A friendly bluebird that follows him. They have fun together. They encounter a bully who hurts the bird. The acid kicks in as rainbow birds fly the kid into the sky so the little boy can release his feathered friend into... home? Heaven? I have no idea but you never get to see if the kid is put down safely. If he's ever put down at all by those birds...

Alright, I give up. I really wanted to like this book but every time I try to read it becomes too trippy. I'm sure it's a great book but the way the author writes, and I can't tell where the real world ends and Lauren's strange hallucinations of the missing teens starts and blarghl! Too much!

Hooray! I love comic anthologies with some of my favorite comic artists!

Hooray! I love these comic anthologies, all these having the theme of islands. These are like the Flight comic anthologies, but much shorter. Can't wait for volume 3!

This book was a roller coaster of likes and dislikes. If I could give it 3.5 stars, I would do that. I really super enjoyed it for most of the beginning of the book! Dexter was witty and at his best. Then towards the last half of the book he became NotDexter. His decisions and feelings were totally against his character so far. He seemed way too human and vulnerable and made some pretty stupid decisions. That's okay, then at the end of this book there are some great plot twists that brought my rating back up again. Phew, that was a close one Dexter!

Hm, how do I feel about this book. I'm not quite sure. It wasn't BAD, the characters were okay, no one really bothered me too much. And they developed well enough through the story. But I still feel like this book had so many ideas and wanted to be so much, but only had time to scrape the surface of each tidbit: time travel, dragons, cults, love triangles, twin brothers set against one another, gamer girl main character trying to support her and her grandpa since her mother and father are dead, conspiracies... see what I mean? It was too much. The time travel bits had some holes in it too, I'm not quite sure how it works, and I don't think the time travelers know either, because I think stuff was just made up on the spot. The main element that had me intrigued were the dragons. I guess Emmy is cool. I dunno, I just wasn't feeling this book. It has its moments of older-teen gore, but the writing style is perhaps 11+. I'll read book two, but hopefully it picks a direction and sticks with it.