Bad Guy

March 27, 2017
“Mom calls me Sweetie Pie and Buddy Bear,” says Barnaby’s (Some of the Parts) narrator. “But I am not those things. I am bad.” In vivid vignettes with the feel of animation stills, the eye-patch-wearing boy lives up to his villainous self-image by vanquishing his sister, Alice, in various pretend-play scenarios. “On Tuesday I sailed the seven seas and kept all the treasure for myself,” he recounts (Alice is shown tied to a tree); on Friday, he dumps spaghetti on her head and makes believe that he’s eating her brain. But Alice turns the tables on Saturday: she ensnares her brother in a classic net trap, then taunts him by eating “all the orange Popsicles right in front of me.” Yamada (Kai to the Rescue!) gives Alice a determined glare that generally makes her look more like someone biding her time than a victim. But her triumph falls somewhat flat—her nemesis is bratty and mean, but not much else, and it’s hard to care about the comeuppance of a one-dimensional character. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Linda Pratt, Wernick & Pratt. Illustrator’s agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Agency.

March 15, 2017
Another wannabe bad guy.-I am a bad guy,- announces an adorable little kid with Asian features as he strokes a white cat. Few young readers will pick up this James Bond reference, a slip that's emblematic of the uneasy relationship between the book's text and its illustrations, which can't seem to decide whether to be literal or metaphorical. -On Monday I trapped all the superheroes in a giant cage with a bunch of hungry lions.- Strangely, the three lions are outside the cage, an upended laundry basket. Tuesday he is a pirate who ties his sister to a tree, and Wednesday he becomes a giant and -swallow[s] some astronauts whole.- In neither pirate nor astronaut image does there seem to be a relationship between an imagined world and the real one. Thursday he runs the sheriff (sister Alice again) out of town while astride what looks like a rocking horse. -On Friday, I ate Alice's brain---a winner of an image, with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs on poor Alice's head and a truly evil-looking brother shoveling handfuls into his mouth. Saturday they go to the library. The -bad guy- finds books on applied badness, while Alice takes out Eat, Prey, Love--another reference to fly over the audience's heads. Later, the -bad guy- gets hoist with his own petard in a feminist ending that does little to help the book cohere. The humor feels accidental here, with illustrations that fail to establish a consistent visual subtext. (Picture book. 4-8)

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May 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 2-Alice's brother thinks he is a bad guy. He wears an eye patch, traps superheroes, swallows astronauts, never apologizes, and loves to go to the library to get super bad ideas. But he is in for a shock when he finds out that not all bad guys are guys. This is a wonderfully written book with a twist ending that will charm readers. The watercolor pictures are rendered in a cartoonlike style that will appeal to young children. The intricate images convey the story well and contain several surprises that may escape notice on a first read. Each page features one simple sentence, making this book appropriate as an independent choice for early readers, and looking at the details of the pictures will keep older kids engaged. VERDICT A fun read-aloud for storytimes, this is an amusing and clever tale, enhanced by lively illustrations, that will be a good choice for most shelves.-Peggy Henderson Murphy, Wyandot Elementary School, Dublin, OH

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