Samira likes school, especially when she gets to sit next to her best friend, Frida. But when they learn about the skeletal system in science class, Samira suddenly begins to imagine everyone in school as a walking skeleton. Soon she starts avoiding her fellow classmates, even Frida, but Samira still can't escape her own skeleton. With some clever help from her mother, though, Samira realizes that maybe having a body full of bones isn't necessarily a bad thing.Enhanced by delightfully impish illustrations, Camilla Kuhn's playful book depicts the hilarious results of an imagination gone awry. From School Library Journal PreS-Gr 2-When Samira learns that everyone has a skeleton under their skin, she becomes unhappy. She starts seeing the people around her as bony monstrosities and avoids them all, even her best friend. Samira's mom offers to remove the skeleton so that she can crawl around on the ground like a snail. But just as Mom is about to make the first cut, Samira decides she likes having a skeleton after all. The next day, similar troubles arise when her teacher starts a lesson on muscles. Although the author makes it clear that we all have skeletons, she doesn't explain why. Adults may want to shed some light on the topic for kids, but children reading this title on their own may not understand. Giant-headed, slightly disconcerting illustrations of skeletons reflect Samira's anxiety. VERDICT This story unfortunately misses the opportunity to share more about the skeletal system in favor of focusing on the creep factor. Pass on this one.-Laura Stanfield, Campbell County Public Library, Fort Thomas, KY?(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Samira likes school, especially when she gets to sit next to her best friend, Frida. But when they learn about the skeletal system in science class, Samira suddenly begins to imagine everyone in school as a walking skeleton. Soon she starts avoiding her fellow classmates, even Frida, but Samira still can't escape her own skeleton. With some clever help from her mother, though, Samira realizes that maybe having a body full of bones isn't necessarily a bad thing.Enhanced by delightfully impish illustrations, Camilla Kuhn's playful book depicts the hilarious results of an imagination gone awry. From School Library Journal PreS-Gr 2-When Samira learns that everyone has a skeleton under their skin, she becomes unhappy. She starts seeing the people around her as bony monstrosities and avoids them all, even her best friend. Samira's mom offers to remove the skeleton so that she can crawl around on the ground like a snail. But just as Mom is about to make the first cut, Samira decides she likes having a skeleton after all. The next day, similar troubles arise when her teacher starts a lesson on muscles. Although the author makes it clear that we all have skeletons, she doesn't explain why. Adults may want to shed some light on the topic for kids, but children reading this title on their own may not understand. Giant-headed, slightly disconcerting illustrations of skeletons reflect Samira's anxiety. VERDICT This story unfortunately misses the opportunity to share more about the skeletal system in favor of focusing on the creep factor. Pass on this one.-Laura Stanfield, Campbell County Public Library, Fort Thomas, KY?(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
