The Missing Donut

July 15, 2018
Sprinklers say the darnedest things.Let's backtrack. Sprinklers are blob-shaped critters of diverse size and color who are helpers of the Sprinkle Fairy. They appear in each of the six brief, unrelated stories about a boy named Cris and his cat, Crat, to introduce, with fanfare ("Big Word! Big Word!"), an unfamiliar word to emergent and early-middle-grade readers. There's an arbitrary feel to the presentation, as though the tales were constructed around the words. The words are ones readers may not have realized they might want to know: "purloined," "discombobulated," "bamboozled," "smithereens," and "galoshes." More commonplace words in the stories that young children may feel are equally important, including "wizard," "fairy," or "sprinkle," aren't singled out (although, granted, they aren't as big). Each new word gets special treatment: It's used several times in context, sometimes in different forms; a pronunciation guide is provided; and it's defined at the story's conclusion. The final tale reinforces all the new vocabulary. Perhaps due to this conceit, the stories are only faintly amusing, with endings that fall flat. The cartoon illustrations, however, reminiscent of those in Mo Willems' Elephant & Piggie books, are whimsical, expressive, and appealing, and they feature ample white space and capitalized sound effects. Cris and the Sprinkle Fairy are both pale-skinned, but depicted groups are diverse.It's not the worst way to introduce some new, unusual words, but this is unlikely to stimulate repeat readings. (Early reader. 5-8)

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September 15, 2018
Grades K-3 Enter multisyllabic words that are fun to say and use. Five different pieces of vocabulary are introduced in mini-episodes featuring a tidy lad named Cris, his messy cat, Crat, and a gang of balloonlike Sprinklers, who loudly announce the impending arrival of a Big Word! Big Word! The titular chapter kicks off the language learning: Cris discovers that his jelly donut has been PURLOINED! Subsequently, a bike crash leaves Crat feeling DISCOMBOBULATED, a trio of light-pawed chipmunk thieves leave the boy and his cat BAMBOOZLED, Crat smashes a Jeff Koons-style balloon sculpture into SMITHEREENS, discovers that GALOSHES are terrible footwear for a cat, and finally joins the other characters in folding all five verbal gobstoppers into a simple Small Play on Big Words. General meanings of the words are clear in context, but the author provides a rudimentary definition (and pronunciation) for each. The text, all dialogue or sound effects, is broken up into easily digestible bits and accompanied by McBeth's small, very simply drawn cartoon images. A HUMDINGER for budding wordplay fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
In six everyday-type vignettes, strait-laced boy Cris and his goofy cat, Crat, learn "big words" (including discombobulated and bamboozled) with help from the Sprinkle Fairy. It's pretty obvious that the spot-illustrated stories are written around the vocabulary words, but prompts from the book itself will have kids trying out these new words, which are, yes, big as well as funny-sounding enough to keep their attention.

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