Review by Booklist Review
A girl gets a bit of a scare when this book's narrator informs her that every head of every person you've ever seen . . . has a skull inside. Suddenly the faces of the men, women, children, and animals around her disappear to reveal grinning skulls of various sizes and shapes. Despite this startling development, the narrator assures her (and readers) that This is a good thing. The girl's fear is quickly replaced by curiosity, and simplified facts about skulls are playfully relayed for the remainder of the book. Skulls are safe and snug, like a car seat for your brain, the text attests, as a four-wheeled skull cruises by with a cute, pink brain smiling inside. Readers will also learn that skulls give faces their shape, hold teeth in place, and have holes for light, sound, air, and grilled cheese sandwiches. The book's silly tone is gleefully evident in Campbell's watercolor illustrations and guaranteed to get kids giggling and proclaiming, I love my skull! Concluding Cool Skull Facts offer readers more precise information.--Julia Smith Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Skulls can be scary looking, but, this book proposes, they are precious things. "You probably don't think much about skulls," opens Thornburgh (Who's That Girl), addressing the reader in a confiding tone. But everyone has one, and "skulls are safe and snug, like a car seat for your brain." With a deft blend of yuckiness and hilarity, Campbell (Sleepy, the Goodnight Buddy) draws a little skull on four wheels with a brain enclosed safely inside. Thornburgh expounds on her subject's virtues: "Skulls have holes in them... for sounds, for light, for air, for grilled cheese sandwiches." Some are afraid of skulls, she admits, but the reader is surely not one of those: "You love having a safe place to keep your brain." Including readers in this group of rational humans makes Thornburgh's ending message especially effective. "Take care of your skull," the text advises, as Campbell shows a girl and her grinning skull in a bicycle helmet, "because you only get one." Sometimes, this highly entertaining disquisition reminds readers, things that seem frightening at first can become quite wonderful once you get to know them. Ages 4-8. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--Thornburgh explains why we have skulls and why they look as they do. A goggle-eyed girl guides readers through crowds and then introduces a variety of folks and animals, some with X-rayed heads. The narrator shows how skulls give heads shape and keep teeth in place, and discusses why there are holes. She notes, "Skulls are not trying to be scary. They can't help the way they look." At the book's conclusion, Thornburgh provides a list of fast facts about skulls, such as body weight percentage and definitions of words such as orbits. Campbell's watercolor illustrations feature rounded figures involved in various upbeat activities. VERDICT The carefree tone and tidbits of humor, such as the girl's love of grilled cheese sandwiches, make this an amusing introduction for young students of the human body.--Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
You probably dont think much about skulls, the book begins, as readers meet a round-faced girl with puffball pigtails. A page-turn places the girl, whos contentedly chomping on an apple, amid a quirky crowd. A pirate is feeding a parrot; a yippy dog has a boy in tow; a worker stands in a manhole; a lumberjack sports an axto name but a few. The next spread repeats the tableau, but with a twist: all the faces of this motley crew (except the girls) are now shown as skulls. Its a scene thats silly and a bit eerie. To minimize the creepiness, Thornburgh quickly reassures readersand the girlthat having a skull is a good thing. With snappy writing Thornburgh describes a skulls importance (its a car seat for your brain) and its functions (it gives a face its shape; it holds teeth in place; and more). The text also explains that a skulls holes are for seeing, smelling, hearing, and eating. The pigtailed girlher skull now visibleenthusiastically embraces all this newfound knowledge, even the point that skulls are not trying to be scary. They cant help the way they look. Campbell packs plenty of humor into his muted watercolor illustrations (the grim reaper sips from a juice box) in this jaunty paean to human skulls. Cool Skull Facts are appended. tanya d. auger July/Aug p.149(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
A celebration of that thing everyone has to hold eyes, nose, and teeth in place.Thornburgh urges readers to appreciate their skulls, which are not only "safe and snug, like a car seat for your brain," but come with convenient holes for seeing, hearing, and chowing down on grilled-cheese sandwiches. Even without noses (which are "more of a cartilage thing"), skulls also give faces a good shape and, despite what some people think, really aren't trying to be scary. Campbell's cartoon illustrations feature racially diverse humans, animals, or crowds whose heads switch back and forth between smiling flesh and X-ray views with the turn of a page. Assurances notwithstanding, they tend to undermine that last claimat least at first. Still, any initial startlement should soon give way to a willingness to echo the author's "I love my skull!" A page of "Cool Skull Facts!" opposite a final, fairly anatomically correct image gives this good odds of becoming a STEM and storytime favorite. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Readers who have never thought of it before will agree: "Take care of your skull, because you only get one." Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
