Review: Princess Kevin

By Michael Escoffier

Illustrated by Roland Garrigue

Available now from Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Review copy

I was attracted to Princess Kevin due to the bright pink cover and the beautiful dress, which reminded me of 18th-century French court fashion. I noticed the incongruous title third and had to pick it up.

Princess Kevin is a very cute children's book in which Kevin wants to wear a princess costume to his school's fancy dress party. But he wants a knight to hold his hand to complete his costume, and none of the kids dressed as knights are willing to help. Meanwhile, Chloe (who is dressed to a dragon) is kind to him even though he thinks her dragon costume is sub-par and sock-like.

I appreciate that Princess Kevin tackles issues of gender roles that might be fraught for adults in a manner perfectly suited for children. There's nothing wrong with children playing around and being creative and imaginative. The important thing is to be kind to one another and have fun together. (And I love the touch that Kevin realizes wearing high heels all day is not fun!)

My favorite part might be the illustrations by Roland Garrigue. There's an old-fashioned nature to them and all the kids having messy hair reminds me of Hilary Knight's Eloise. The colors are lovely, too. I really love the choices for all the other children's costumes in the background.

The story is pretty slight, but it is nice to see a book tackles a fraught issue without making a big deal of it. There is some complicated vocabulary. Between that and the subject, I think Princess Kevin is a book best read to a child.

Review: Search the Ocean, Find the Animals

By Bethanie and Josh Hestermann

Illustrated by Sara Lynn Cramb

Available now from Rockridge Press

Review copy

Search the Ocean, Find the Animals is a fun search-and-find activity book for younger children. Each spread features a different watery setting where children can find ten animals with included facts about them.

 Author Josh Hestermann is a terrestrial husbandry manager and Bethanie Hestermann is a writer. They combine their expertise to write simple but entertaining blurbs about the environments and animals featured in Search the Ocean, Find the Animals. I like that they start on the beach, a potentially familiar setting for children, before moving farther out. 

One thing I loved on the beach spread was that one of the items to find is reef-safe sunscreen. It's a simple way to introduce kids to something they can use to help preserve our oceans. I also liked that some more unusual settings for a basic book, like a mangrove swamp, were included. The activity book also ends with a call to action, asking children to find ten pieces of trash that are polluting the ocean.

The art by Sara Lynn Cramb shows off the beautiful colors of the ocean. It isn't my favorite style, but it serves the purpose of the book well. I like that some of the animals are half hidden by other objects, such as a flounder partially buried in the sand. It helps show how these animals actually interact with their environment. (And the text up top gives clues to where each animal might choose to hide.)

If you're looking for a way to keep a child entertained, I think Search the Ocean, Find the Animals is a good choice. It is simple, as far as search-and-find books go, but it includes good information.

Review: A Wave of Stars

By Dolores Brown

Illustrated by Sonja Wimmer

Available now from NubeOcho

Review copy

I was attracted to A Wave of Stars due to the arresting cover, with adorable turtle and a seal clutching a merman plush. I am glad I decided to pick it up, because the art is beautiful throughout.

 Sonja Wimmer's art has a softness to it that makes the characters look extra cute. The bright colors are well-suited to a story that partially takes place in the ocean. There are also lots of fun details for young readers to spot, like where the merman plush is on each page as it gets tossed through the waves with Mimbi and Kipo, the seal and turtle. There's also a really fun use of color and style where not only are some detail images done in black and white, but some images turn black and white when they cross a border.

The story by Dolores Brown is quite simple. Mimbi and Kipo are told a legend about the moonbow (a rainbow at night), and then they see one and are turned into human children against their will. With the help of a thankfully kind fisherman, they are able to turn back and go home. The flow of the text was somewhat choppy, in my opinion. Also, Mimbi and Kipo's distress at being turned into humans might be too much for more sensitive children.

I think A Wave of Stars is best used in a setting where a child can really linger over the illustrations instead of having to hurry on to the next page to finish the story.

Review: The College Vegetarian Cookbook: 150 Easy, Budget-Friendly Recipes

Written and illustrated by Stephanie McKercher, MS, RDN

Available now from Rockridge Press

Review copy

Stephanie McKercher is a registered dietician as well as a food blogger. Her first cookbook, The College Vegetarian, focuses on dishes that are easy and quick and inexpensive to make, and that use few ingredients and tools. This focus means that the recipes are also handy for those of us who are well past our college years.

The first chapter of The College Vegetarian is a handy reference that covers  cooking techniques, how to store the ingredients and food, and other basics. It also introduces the main ingredients for a healthy, inexpensive vegetarian diet and discusses what nutrition each provides. (It also further convinced me I could never actually be vegetarian as I don't like beans, tomatoes, or mushrooms.)

The recipes contained within The College Vegetarian are quite simple. Most involve around five steps. Some in the drinks section only have two steps. There were a few recipes that struck me as perhaps too simple for even a basic cookbook. "Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Bowls," for instance, is instructions on how to add things to yogurt to jazz it up and add additional ingredients. But I can acknowledge that parfaits are a dish.

There were also times I felt McKercher went too simple. The "Vegan Gumbo" uses only vegetable broth. Gumbo is a roux-based soup. Now, you would need to adjust roux to make it vegan instead of just vegetarian, but with single search, I found three-ingredient vegan rouxs. I don't think it would've added that much complexity, and making a roux is an excellent foundational skill to learn for making all sorts of soups. 

I made a few test recipes. In general, I found that the times took about twice as long if you needed to chop your vegetables or do other prep that was taken for granted. Every recipe I tried was also distinctly underseasoned. I would add extra salt and pepper to taste. The strangest issue I ran into was making the "Broccoli Cheddar Strata," which called for an 8-by-11 inch glass baking dish. I have an 8-by-8 dish and a 9-by-13 dish, and another search reassured me that those were the two standard glass baking dish sizes (along with a 9-by-9 square). It's just an odd thing to mess up.

But I do think that these recipes are quite nice and a good intro to vegetarian cooking on a budget. I certainly have plenty of ideas to try out.

Review: Looking for Ladybug in Ocean City

Written and illustrated by Katherina Manolessou

Available now from Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Review copy

This is the second Look for Ladybug picture books, but like many picture books of a similar type, you don't have to read them in any particular order. In this book, animal detectives Daisy and Bell lose their pet ladybug in Ocean City and look for her in all sorts of undersea landscapes.

Look for Ladybug in Ocean City is designed for younger children than Where's Waldo? or the I Spy books. The pages are less crowded, although there is still plenty to discover within the bright, inviting illustrations. There's five items to look for on every page, three items mentioned in the text on every page, and plenty of other things for children to spot on their own.

(There is one time where Ladybug is hidden in a corner, so be careful where you rest your hand on the page!)

My favorite spread was that covering "The Museum." On the gallery walls were fish versions of famous artworks. I found them hilarious! There are several jokes in the design that are likely to amuse an older reader who is challenging a child to look for Ladybug.

This is a very beautiful search and find book for children.