Pedro Iniguez

This was a great issue. (Full disclosure, I'm a first reader for CG. We were flooded with submissions for this issue and all of them were so good.)

"Under the Bed" by Effie Seiberg was a little cute and a little eerie and it might just make you cry. The monsters under the bed love us and they don't understand if we leave.

"Harvestfruit" by JY Yang started off like your typical machines-take-over-the-world story, but then it knocked me down with an astounding disclosure. The robots are honored show more to have the humans around and they never waste anything. (That sounds gross, like 'soylent green is people' gross. That is not what I mean.)

"The Ancestors" by Laurie Tom is your basic Chinese family honoring their ancestors story with a twist that cracked me right up. It's good to honor your ancestors, be they blood or ancestors in the genre.

"What Came Last" by Lindsay Sheehan is sweet little dinner conversation between a little girl and her mother about the shades of extinction and what's required to be a species. show less

In a Nutshell: A picture book about the dangers of fibbing. Cute story and cute illustrations. A good lesson for little ones (and adults) to remember. Recommended, but it will work better with discussions.

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Plot Preview:

Second-grader Pepe planned to use the comic book he had drawn on Show-and-Tell day. But after seeing his classmates’ presentations, he is embarrassed at the childishness of his work. So he takes a ball of lint from his pocket and spins a lie about it

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being a magical creature with impressive physical features. Unfortunately for Pepe, his fib soon turns into reality. Worse, his “fib” grows every time Pepe fibs about its qualities. The danger seems to balloon out of Pepe’s control. How can he restore normalcy and get rid of the giant Fib monster?

This is a clever book that uses a creative story to drive home an important point: even small fibs can turn dangerous. Like all fantastical works, it would be better read with suspension of disbelief, because there are quite a few things the book leaves dangling.

The story begins in a light manner, but as Pepe’s fibs and his Fib grow, the proceedings get quite menacing. Luckily, Pepe learns his lesson soon enough.

With not much rationale for the sudden manifestation of the Fib monster, the lesson might be a bit too subtle for some little readers to grasp. All the more as the meaning of the word ‘fib’ is revealed quite late in the book and not every child might be familiar with it beforehand.

The text is good for the target age of 4-7 years, though the older kids in that age group might find the content a bit too simplistic and the younger kids, too abstract. There are about 2-6 lines per page, and the page layout spaces out the text blocks well. There are a load of similes, thanks to Pepe’s imaginative Fib monster.

The illustrations are fabulous. The characters as well as the background are vividly coloured. Pepe’s Fib monster is especially well-drawn, with every stage of its growth (and decline) represented perfectly. That said, its huge teeth and destructive tendencies might end up scaring some little readers.

I think I loved the message the most, even though the execution could have been slightly better. The book doesn’t get preachy about morality, which works to its advantage.

I have mixed feelings about the ending. The part where there’s a hint about the difference between make-believe and lying, is good, but again, it is too understated and would work better with discussion. Also, I would have liked Pepe to return to the comic book he first made and show it to his friends happily.

Overall, this is a good book with a great message, but I’d have liked it to be slightly more refined in its execution. Perhaps it would click better if read in a classroom as some of the finer points about the consequences of lying and the out-of-control fib are worth discussing in a group.

3.25 stars.

My thanks to Gloo Books for providing the DRC of “The Fib” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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The Fib
By Pedro Iniguez
This is a super cute book about the consequences of lying. It was show & tell day at school and our little guy doesn't feel like his item is good enough to show after seeing what the other kids brought. So he makes up a fib. This fib gets bigger and bigger as he lies more and more. Soon the monster fib is wrecking the school.
The book ends nicely with the lesson learned.
The pictures have bright colors and fun shapes to hold the interest along with the story. A win-win show more combo!
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this clever and fun book! show less