National Regular Average Ordinary Day

April 1, 2020
A humorous look at problem-solving and monotony. Peter, a tot with white skin and a mop of scribbly, brown hair, is bored. Usually he has fun with his friend Devin (who's also white), but lately everything they do has gotten stale. At one point, he breaks: "Enough!...This is SUPER BORING! I'm out of HERE!" He stomps home and tries to think of other things he can do that would be more fun. He decides to celebrate a different holiday every day. He even devises his own rating system. There is the nine-star National Ice-Cream Sandwich Day and National Lighthouse Day (a paltry two). National Underwear Day (in which underwear is worn--all over) is "an unexpected 8 stars." But when he wakes up one morning to find out there is "NO HOLIDAY," he must rethink his plan. What if he makes up a holiday instead? National Ride Your Bike With No Hands Day starts strong but doesn't go well (nor as badly as it might have). Neither does combining National Squirrel Appreciation Day with National Bubble Bath Day (although the squirrels have a blast). Perhaps a day can just be ordinary, and that can be fun too. Bakos' playful illustrations amp up the silliness of this very child-friendly premise. Readers may note that the passage of time seems off, however. When he reunites with Devin, an offhand apology, "Sorry about how I acted the other day," seems incongruent with how many holidays he must have celebrated. Droll and decidedly un-ordinary. (Picture book. 3-7)

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May 4, 2020
Playing the same old games with his friend Devin is “super boring!” so Peter decides to have fun a new way, all by himself: rating and enjoying all the less commonly celebrated holidays on the calendar. On National Underwear Day, for example, Peter dons garish boxer shorts on every part of his body, and deems the day worthy of eight stars. But when a morning dawns that has no holiday, and Peter can’t invent one that gets any traction (National Ignore Your Sister Day goes over like a lead balloon), he discovers that he “didn’t need something special to do every single day”; an average, ordinary day, especially one in which he patches things up with Devin and the whole neighborhood is outside playing, can be a lot of fun. Readers may wish they could enjoy Peter commemorating more of the goofy real-life holidays, but it’s always good to see both kid ingenuity and the joys of everyday life celebrated, and Katzenberger (A Triceratops Would Not Make a Good Ninja) and Bakos’s (Here Come the Helpers) book should be a fun prompt for calendar-related classroom activities. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Natascha Morris, BookEnds Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Anne Moore Armstrong, the Bright Agency.

June 1, 2020

K-Gr 2-Peter is bored with the games he and his friend, Devin, play every day. Instead of suggesting something new, Peter gets angry and stomps home. Even more bored at home, Peter decides to celebrate and rate a new holiday every day. This works well until a day arrives with no holiday: "But if there was one thing Peter had learned, it was that anything could be a holiday. All he had to do was make one up!" His imagination takes over and a box he is sitting in becomes a racecar, a rocket, and a ship. When Devin rides by doing tricks on his bike, Peter apologizes for his previous behavior, and the two of them spend the afternoon playing typical kid games while the rest of the neighborhood joins in. Ultimately, Peter learns to appreciate what he has. The casual writing tone and the silly holidays that Peter celebrates make for a fun read-aloud. The cartoon-style illustrations are humorous and may inspire kids to invent some new holidays of their own. VERDICT A bright and serviceable addition to library shelves.-Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Lib., MN

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