Tag: Alex Latimer

Posted in picture books

Kitchen Side Story: Food Fight, by Alex Latimer

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Food Fight, by Alex Latimer, (March 2023, Kane Miller), $15.99, ISBN: 9781684644957

Ages 4-7

Mushroom and Grape are best friends, but theirs is a forbidden friendship: vegetables and fruits just don’t like each other. Things get pretty heated between the two groups, so Mushroom and Grape sneak off to figure out how to bring their two groups together, and Mushroom has a suggestion: seek out the Wise Old Cheese, long rumored to be at the top of the fridge where no one goes. The friends go on an epic journey to seek his wisdom and bring it back to heal the long-simmering feud. Filled with food puns, this story is all about friendship and conflict resolution, with a colorful cast of expressive fruits and vegetables. Googly white eyes and stick arms and legs make the cartoony foods as fun as they are recognizable. Front endpapers show the two food groups at odds with one another: Carrot and Banana face off with boxing gloves, Banana sporting a black eye; Cucumber threatens Orange with a grater, and Mushroom and Grape stand sadly in the middle of the fray. On the back endpapers, all is well: bathing suit-clad Pineapple and ONion frolic through a sprinkler; Pear paints a portrait of Potato, Orange presents Cucumber with a birthday cake, and Mushroom and Grape happily wave to the reader, arms wrapped around each other. A cute additional purchase where friendship and kindness stories (like the Summer Reading Theme, All Together Now!) do well.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Am I Yours? is an adorable dino guessing game

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Am I Yours?, by Alex Latimer, (Sept. 2018, Peachtree Publishers), $16.95, ISBN: 9781682630440

Ages 3-6

An icy prehistoric wind blows an egg out of its nest; it rolls, then lands, in the midst of a group of dinosaurs. As the egg begs for help in identifying its parents, each dinosaur offers a description of itself and asks the embryonic dinosaur if it shares the same trait: Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Corythosaurus, even Tyrannosaurus all try to help, but the poor egg is bereft: it doesn’t sound like any of these dinosaurs are its parents! In a melodramatic turn, the egg fears the chill night will be its last, but no worries: the setting sun presents a silhouette of the little pterosaur inside the egg, and the dinosaurs rejoice: they can reunite the family!

This adorable rhyming tale is a dinoriffic take on the “Are You My Mother?” theme. The dinosaurs are mostly familiar faces, and the rhyming and repetition allows kids to anticipate what will happen next. Dinosaurs are bright in color; pencil art that’s been digitized and finished with color and texture gives the artwork a mixed media feel. This would make an adorable flannel story – get yourself to the craft store! There’s a free downloadable matching game on Peachtree’s website.

Booktalk and display with Stephen Lomp’s Mamasaurus and Papasaurus, and Ed Young’s Seven Blind Mice.

Posted in Early Reader, Fiction, Humor, Preschool Reads

Good advice: Never Follow a Dinosaur!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

never-followNever Follow a Dinosaur, by Alex Latimer, (Sept. 2016, Peachtree Publishers), $16.95, ISBN: 9781561457045

Recommended for ages 3-8

Siblings Joe and Sally spy a strange set of footprints by their cat’s bowl one morning, setting them off on an investigation. Clearly, it’s a dinosaur. With each spread, they deduce more about the dinosaur: it’s a heavy dinosaur, because the tracks are so deep; it’s a hungry dinosaur, because it’s eaten the cat’s food; footprints in the fish pond clue them in that it’s a dinosaur who likes to swim. Should you follow a dinosaur, though? Especially when it’s a hungry dinosaur? You’ll just have to read to find out!

Never Follow a Dinosaur is a cute book that teaches kids about using clues to figure out more and more about the dinosaur. The spreads are hilarious, as the dinosaur suffers indignity on top of indignity (bumped head, stubbed toe… the humanity!). The layouts give a lot of space to the kids’ imagination as they conjure up visions of their visitor, and the layout the kids come up with to trap the dino are up there with the best Rube Goldberg devices from the old Warner Brothers cartoons (totally dating myself there).

This is a fun storytime read that offers a lot of interactivity and the chance to give the kids’ imaginations a workout. Ask kids to come up with their own dinosaurs, based on the clues in the book, or just have pictures of dinosaurs to color and customize, for younger readers. Pair this with Ed Young’s Seven Blind Mice for a storytime on deduction and investigation, and then turn it on the kids: have them close their eyes and touch a piece of felt, a chair, a book, a plush toy, and use their five senses to investigate and deduce.