Floater

September 15, 2014
Morphing into a floater should be a good thing. A boy with googly eyes and a mop of brown hair awakens one morning to discover that he can float. Nonetheless, he must go to school, says his mother. A friend on a bike lends a helping rope. It's a field-trip day-off to the zoo-and the buoyant narrator is able to get a new perspective on giraffes, elephants and crocodiles. Unfortunately, a monkey in search of peanuts messes up the works, and the soaring boy is soon as high as an airplane. An epiphany strikes, and he floats along greatly relaxed, meeting many others with the same ability. When he returns home, his mother happily hugs him, and the boy reflects on how his newfound talent will provide many happy hours of fun playing basketball, hovering overhead as a Halloween ghost and flying with kites. There is no explanation for either the abrupt change in physicality or the boy's easy acceptance of such. The first-person narrative of an adventure and return to mother will sound familiar to readers, but it falls flat, lacking any poetic resonance. The illustrations are digitally rendered, cartoon-style art featuring large-headed characters with matching eyes and bright pink cheeks. A failed fantasy. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 2-An unnamed boy wakes up one morning to discover he is floating in the air. Unable to decide whether this turn of events is scary or fun, he nevertheless has to go to school. Floating like a balloon from a rope tied to his pants, he is dragged by his friend and then behind the school bus as the class goes on a field trip to the zoo. The boy starts to enjoy himself when he gets to feed peanuts to the giraffes, but when a monkey grabs his pants to get the peanuts in its pockets, the child drifts away. Panicked at first, he decides to appreciate this unique adventure. He soars up through the clouds and meets a playground's worth of other kids who are having a grand time swooping and spinning in the sky, and he enjoys his new life as a floater. This delightful story is accompanied by bright, fanciful illustrations. The youngster's face is drawn with lots of expression, indicating his fear and delight at being able to float. The tall size of the book allows for vertical pictures and aerial scenes that match the tone of the story. Match this whimsical fantasy with David Weisner's Tuesday (Clarion, 1991) for an amusing airborne storytime.-Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.