Johnny

PreS-K-Johnny the spider wants to celebrate his birthday with others, but everyone he approaches doesn't even give him the chance to ask. Upon seeing him, all manner of small critters, shriek, call him cruel names, and run away, leaving Johnny to eat his cake alone. The narrator paints this sad portrait of a kind individual who is misjudged in order to teach readers empathy. His final line directly addresses them, too, requesting that they look past their preconceptions. Johnny doesn't get a happy ending, even though he gets over his tears rather quickly. The book offers a good jumping off point for discussing how people form their opinions of others. However, there is another topic, which the author ignores, which needs to be addressed when the goal is empathy. During the course of the story, the other critters say a lot of mean things to Johnny. He doesn't seem particularly bothered by this, which is a reaction that is not true to life. Adults would do well to talk about how hurtful this is with kids, explaining why it is unacceptable. Johnny's friendly illustrations are painted on newspaper, which adds some extra dimension to the fairly simple designs. VERDICT A decent message to share, but will require supplemental discussion to truly teach toddlers about empathy.-Rachel Forbes, Oakville Public Library, Ont. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Spiders are a little scary, even the pretty ones and even the ones that come bearing delicious gifts.Mind you, Johnny is not pretty. He's got a nice smile (complete with upward-tending fangs) and rosy checks, but other creatures tend to look askance at the round, black, bug-eyed spider. Johnny can't get a word out of his mouth before the other creatures heap scorn upon him and flee, even though he bears a cake box. They variously call him a "stinky, prickly beast," an "itchy-scratchy thing," a "filthy, fat slimeball" (says the snail), and an "awfully ugly creep." So Johnny dolefully sings "Happy Birthday" to himself and then scarfs the whole cake. "Johnny is a very sweet [literally, metaphorically] spider, but nobody knows that.Except you! So if you see Johnny around, give him a very big kiss," the text concludes. It is hard to know if this book is one big pull on the leg. The expressive, cartoony artwork is nice and rich, but spiders don't stink, scratch, produce slime, or revel in filth, though they do creep (in scary bursts). And give a spider a "very big kiss"? You first. Van Genechten has given expectations a good twist, but the story is short on harmony or communicationfor that matter, it's short on story.Unlikely to turn many arachnophobes, despite Johnny's cheery smile. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.