Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery Baby Otters
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The illustrations are colorful, large and great to look at.
I was underwhelmed by thi
Karen and her friends - all extremely cute animals - attempt to build sand castles one summer day at the park, only to watch Skyler and his friends continually smash their efforts. Eventually getting fed up with these bullies, the cute animals resort to the use of heavy machinery, building a massive sand-castle/amusement park, one not so easily destroyed. Fortunately cute animals are "extremely good at including everyone," and let Skyler and his friends enter the park...I was underwhelmed by this new offering from picture-book author/artist David Gordon, finding the artwork a little flat and the story somewhat unappealing. In trying to put my finger on just what put me off, I find myself coming back to the title,
Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery. There's an obtrusive quality to it, as there is to much of the text, as if the author doesn't quite trust his readers to see the juxtapositions he is creating, between cuteness and bullies, cuteness and machines, without pointing them out. I also found the ways in which cuteness was linked to good character in the story rather problematic, as good looks are not (in my experience) a guarantee of being a good person. Mileage varies, of course, so others might still want to check this one out, if they are in the market for children's stories about bullying, but I think there are better options out there. ...more
A group of cute animals build a sandcastle at the playground only to have it destroyed by a pack of bullies. The friends rebuild and the bullies destroy their efforts every time until the friends go high-tech and bring in welding equipment and all sorts of construction machines to create a sandcastle amusement park.
Once the super-cool park opens the bullies feel left out, but the friends are nice enough to include the bullies making for a happy ending.
While I liked th
Great title, so-so story.A group of cute animals build a sandcastle at the playground only to have it destroyed by a pack of bullies. The friends rebuild and the bullies destroy their efforts every time until the friends go high-tech and bring in welding equipment and all sorts of construction machines to create a sandcastle amusement park.
Once the super-cool park opens the bullies feel left out, but the friends are nice enough to include the bullies making for a happy ending.
While I liked the vibrant digital images of the cheery cute friends using some high-tech construction equipment, I didn't really like the resolution to the bullying. The bullies didn't apologize, and it didn't seem like they learned anything; they just wanted to get into the super-cool amusement park and they got what they wanted.
Overall, this wasn't the book I though it'd be. Pass.
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Adorable animals get bullied, and adorable animals keep doing their thing. And then they bring out heavy machinery to exact revenge.
I loved the line, "Being extremely cute doesn't mean you can't get EXTREMELY MAD!" Life lesson, y'all. That may be a lesson for grown ups more than the kiddos. :-) It got an extra star because of the title. 3 star story, 4 star title.
Adorable animals get bullied, and adorable animals keep doing their thing. And then they bring out heavy machinery to exact revenge.
I loved the line, "Being extremely cute doesn't mean you can't get EXTREMELY MAD!" Life lesson, y'all. That may be a lesson for grown ups more than the kiddos. :-) ...more
(Am I the only one who wasn't actually all that into the illustration?)
Great title, okay book :) I like the idea, but felt like the execution was meh. I do like that cute doesn't preclude really angry, and I do like the persistence.(Am I the only one who wasn't actually all that into the illustration?)
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Premise/plot: This picture book is about playground bullies. Karen and her extremely cute friends are bullied--repeatedly--by Skyler, Mike, and Trent. Karen and her friends--mainly girls, I believe, though it's hard to tell--never give up, never surrender. As the bullying progresses, they get MAD. And when they get mad, they prepare to operate HEA
First sentence: One beautiful summer day, Karen, an extremely cute animal, was the playground, making a sand castle....Skyler appeared out of nowhere.Premise/plot: This picture book is about playground bullies. Karen and her extremely cute friends are bullied--repeatedly--by Skyler, Mike, and Trent. Karen and her friends--mainly girls, I believe, though it's hard to tell--never give up, never surrender. As the bullying progresses, they get MAD. And when they get mad, they prepare to operate HEAVY machinery. They ultimately end up building an amusement park on the playground--instead of a sandcastle in the sandbox.
My thoughts: I picked it up because of the title. I suppose that books about bullying are needed. And I suppose that books about bullies can be entertaining at the same time. But I'm not sure this one is. I didn't like the language in this one (stupid, butts); the message is appropriate, but, the language while realistic perhaps might be deemed inappropriate by some families and even some classrooms. (I know there are words that you are not allowed to say at school.) Overall, I was disappointed with this one.
Text: 2 out of 5
Illustrations: 2 out of 5
Total: 4 out of 10
I honestly don't know who this is aimed towards. There are a bunch of extremely cute animals who are being bullied at the playground, mostly what appears to be... some kind of kangaroo, perhaps? The animals are drawn in a unusual style. She's building a sand castle and this bully comes and starts knocking it down. Her friends help her rebuild it. The battle between her friends and the bullies--this war of build, destroy, build, destroy--keeps escalating as
Not sure what this one is trying to say.I honestly don't know who this is aimed towards. There are a bunch of extremely cute animals who are being bullied at the playground, mostly what appears to be... some kind of kangaroo, perhaps? The animals are drawn in a unusual style. She's building a sand castle and this bully comes and starts knocking it down. Her friends help her rebuild it. The battle between her friends and the bullies--this war of build, destroy, build, destroy--keeps escalating as they make bigger and bigger sand castles. Eventually, the extremely cute animals (the builders) get extremely mad and they go and get massive amounts of heavy machinery, like a bulldozer, a heavy-lift helicopter, and some kind of crane. Overnight, they build a massive amusement park plus sand castle. There's a gate, and they don't allow the bullies in. Then they offer to allow the bullies in, and the bullies are nervous because they know the other animals were mad at them, but everybody plays happily at the amusement park. There's a section devoted to building and destroying sand castles.
Again, I'm not really sure who this is written for. I don't know why it's stressed that the animals are extremely cute. Honestly, I don't find them very cute. I'm not really a fan of his method of depicting characters. Is this book maybe pandering to girls? I do like the inclusion of the relatively realistic looking construction equipment, but I was kind of disappointed by this book. I hoped that it would be more interesting than this, and the heavy machinery just kind of comes out of nowhere. The whole, "I'm building a full-on amusement park in a day" is kind of a deus ex machina ending. It's not great literature but it doesn't have a bad message. It's just pretty solidly middle-of-the-road.
Message: Don't be mean.
For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com.
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I found this book when I was looking for something specific. I have a nephew who is really, really into building and construction and I was looking for a book for him, something new and different. I believe I did an Amazon search with some choice key words, and I came across this. It sounds crazy because the title kind of is: Extremely Cute
It has only been two days since I reviewed a picture book, but this one was sitting on the list waiting to be reviewed, so we're going to go ahead and do it.I found this book when I was looking for something specific. I have a nephew who is really, really into building and construction and I was looking for a book for him, something new and different. I believe I did an Amazon search with some choice key words, and I came across this. It sounds crazy because the title kind of is: Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery, by David Gordon. There is something about it that smacks of one of those calendars of buff men snuggling puppies, but obviously more innocent. Still, there's a fun play on concepts going on here which could be construed as blasting open boundaries. I mean, construction doesn't have to be all grunting, flicking beer cans, and catcalling.
But that's not obvious to this book. In fact, the title is clever, but it doesn't actually fit the story. The story is about Karen and her friends, who are picked on repeatedly by Skyler and his friends. Terrorized, is more like. Karen and her friends just keep rebounding and building bigger and better sandcastles until they end up building an entire amusement park. There are no bullies allowed, until Karen peeks her head out to ask if Skyler would like to come in. In other words, it's a book about advocating for yourself, triumphing against bullying, and inclusivity. Kindness wins.
Still, if your little nephew likes building and machines a whole lot—but he's still just a nugget himself—then this is a book to put on his shelf. Otherwise, I'd give it a solid "Okay." Decent illustrations. Decent story. Heavy-handed moral. I won't tell you to go buy it and I won't discourage you from it, either. Note that many of the readers who gave reviews on Goodreads commented that they were drawn in by the clever title and then disappointed.
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
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Secondly, and more importantly, I am officially not interested in books where people make up with bullies. In this case, the bullies didn't apologize, didn't alter behavior,
I didn't love how frequently "stupid" appeared here. There's also a line saying "move your butts". It just didn't feel necessary to the story. I'm not trying to be precious about language, but the target audience is littles (like my 3 year old) and honestly, I don't need books giving him words I'm trying to have him NOT say.Secondly, and more importantly, I am officially not interested in books where people make up with bullies. In this case, the bullies didn't apologize, didn't alter behavior, they were just allowed to be included under some weird "it takes all kinds" umbrella. And the extremely cute animals, evidently were the better people for not excluding the bullies. I hate this message. I hate in particular the message it sends to girls who grow up learning to appease bullies to avoid violence.
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The story is actually about a group of bad kid bullies knocking down a sand castle repeatedly. Kids go back and forth making the castle only to have the bullies destroy. Immediately jump to a created solution-amusement-park-sand-castle-dreamland where the bullies are asked to join because ~inclusiveness~ And just like that the bullies see the light
Just…no. Title misleading, cute animals doing construction work? Nah. I thought my son has landed on a gold mine when he chose this from the library.The story is actually about a group of bad kid bullies knocking down a sand castle repeatedly. Kids go back and forth making the castle only to have the bullies destroy. Immediately jump to a created solution-amusement-park-sand-castle-dreamland where the bullies are asked to join because ~inclusiveness~ And just like that the bullies see the light and are absolved of their sins…
Like what fever dream was this? The art was certainly something. Some of the "extremely cute" animals were downright terrifying.
Bad lessons to children. Beyond odd storyline. Title misleading. It's a no for me dawg.
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Every time Karen and her friends build a sand castle at the playground, Skyler and his friends destroy it. "I said this is MY playground, and NO STUPID SAND CASTLES!" But you don't mess with extremely cute animals, because when they get extremely mad, they get things done. Using heavy equipment, they remove the swings from the playground and build a combination sand castle and amusement park in i
"But the bullies were watching and waiting. They brought snowboards, pogo sticks and a bad attitude."Every time Karen and her friends build a sand castle at the playground, Skyler and his friends destroy it. "I said this is MY playground, and NO STUPID SAND CASTLES!" But you don't mess with extremely cute animals, because when they get extremely mad, they get things done. Using heavy equipment, they remove the swings from the playground and build a combination sand castle and amusement park in its place. And though at first the bullies aren't allowed in, the extremely cute animals are also extremely good at including everyone.
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I was so-so on the graphics for this but I like the characters trengths shown in the story - i.e. that the group of friends keep working positively together, showing grit and determination, to accomplish their goal in the face of escalati
Miss 3 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.I was so-so on the graphics for this but I like the characters trengths shown in the story - i.e. that the group of friends keep working positively together, showing grit and determination, to accomplish their goal in the face of escalating opposition (and the inclusiveness message at the end).
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WHY DID I READ THIS? I was hoping to see cute animals operating heavy machinery.
PLOT 0/5
ART 1/5
What a horrible title - not near enough animals operating heavy machinery.. and they're not particularly cute at all!
Playground bullies destroy a sandcastle so the nice kids build an amusement park and exclude the bullies. Later they welcome them in and everybody is friends.
Pretty weird concept- they just get rid of the playground??? and build an entire amusement park???? I did not enjoy any part of
WHY DID I READ THIS? I was hoping to see cute animals operating heavy machinery.
PLOT 0/5
ART 1/5
What a horrible title - not near enough animals operating heavy machinery.. and they're not particularly cute at all!
Playground bullies destroy a sandcastle so the nice kids build an amusement park and exclude the bullies. Later they welcome them in and everybody is friends.
Pretty weird concept- they just get rid of the playground??? and build an entire amusement park???? I did not enjoy any part of this book.
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Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery Baby Otters
Source: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/27204445
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