Review by Booklist Review
Like her little sib Alphonse, Natalie loves, loves, loves books and stories, eagerly looking forward to reading by herself. But the words in her first reader just look like prickles or birds' feet. Even when she laboriously puzzles them out with adult help, all she gets is, The book was about a cat. The cat could sit. Not even a story! Natalie huffs off to make up stories of her own with Alphonse, and the rest, as they say, is history, because in no time, she's drawing pictures; getting her dad to pencil in the plotline; and working her way through a rousing, handmade original tale. In what may or may not be a significant bit of visual subtext, Natalie and her parents look like axolotls in Hirst's blobby screen-printed scenes, but Alphonse and an older relative sport rabbit ears. Natalie's path to literacy is both fun and valid for other emergent readers, even though drab interest-killers, like the school book she is saddled with, are fortunately rarer than they used to be.--John Peters Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this follow-up to Alphonse, That Is Not OK to Do!, siblings Natalie and Alphonse have become heavily invested in the prospect of Natalie learning how to read. Both already avidly consume and make stories. For Natalie, reading independently means having "all the stories in the world, whenever I want them" (she enviously eyes subway riders with reading material), while Alphonse looks forward to sharing the bounty as Natalie's readaloud audience. But even with help from her teacher, Natalie struggles ("The words looked like prickles or birds' feet"), and what she can read is a big snooze ("The book was about a cat. The cat could sit"). She's ready to chuck it all when a remark from Alphonse-whose matter-of-factness makes him a terrific counterpart-opens a pathway back into narrative and print. Straightforward, empathic prose and screen-printed vignettes of biomorphic family life (red Natalie is amphibious-looking; Alphonse resembles a chunky blue rabbit) by Hirst (The Girl With the Parrot on Her Head) reassure while giving an emotionally fraught subject its full, unsentimental due. Natalie and Alphonse would approve. Ages 3-7. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Monster siblings Natalie and Alphonse are back. Natalie can't wait to read aloud to Alphonse. She gets her first beginner reading book about a cat. The letters all look like prickles and bird feet. Nothing interesting happens to that cat. It just sits. Natalie decides she doesn't like books anymore and doesn't need to read, ever. Instead, she will make up stories and tell them to Alphonse. He suggests that her story should be in a book with pictures. They draw the pictures, and Natalie dictates the story to their dad as he writes it down. Natalie can mostly read the book they'd written. Primary color and screen-printed illustrations depict the simple yet endearing monsterlike characters. Creative use of thick black lines adds detail and illustrates how Natalie sees letters as bird feet, squiggles, and scratches floating across the page. The thick lines also complement the bold kidlike font, creating child-pleasing typography. New readers will understand Natalie's frustrations. VERDICT The siblings' spirited approach to literacy could also spark inspiration in children to create their own stories and not surrender to prickles and bird feet. An appealing read-aloud for those not quite ready to read on their own.-Mindy Hiatt, Salt Lake County Library Services © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The book-loving monster siblings from Alphonse, That Is Not OK to Do! face a problem when big-sis Natalie struggles with learning to read. Frustrated because "the letters and words looked like prickles or birds' feet," she's about to give up when Alphonse (with an assist from Dad) helps her reach a solution. The blobby, colorful screenprinted creatures make a common difficulty/milestone endearingly approachable. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Monster siblings Alphonse and Natalie (Alphonse, That Is Not OK to Do! 2016) return in a sympathetic story about learning to read.Natalie is excited to go to school and to learn to read. She and her younger brother, Alphonse, love stories, both hearing them and telling them. But when the teacher hands Natalie her first primer, reading seems harder than expected, as "the letters and words looked like prickles or birds' feet." Despite the teacher's encouragement to sound out the words, Natalie is frustrated by the difficulty as well as the absence of a real story in this book about a cat that sits. Practicing eventually gives her mastery of this book, but when Alphonse asks Natalie to read aloud one of his books, the letters and words look "like scuttling insects with too many legs and eyes." Natalie declares, "I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE!" Instead, she decides to take care of her sick elephant, Sinad, while making up her own more interesting story. Dad helps by writing the words to the pictures she draws with her brother, producing a homemade book she can read again and again. Bold, primary colors against white space create supportive scenes peopled by this lovable family of adorable, Muppet-like monsters eager to nurture some perseverance and full of patience with Natalie's struggle and ultimate accomplishment. Natalie is on her way to reap the pleasures of learning to read, as seen in the endpapers, by authoring her own storybooks, a recognized strategy to foster beginning readers.Learning to read can be hard, and this book offers youngsters tackling the skill needed sympathy. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
