Review by Booklist Review
Two robots, purple-hued Gurple and green-tinged Preen, crash land on an alien planet, spilling their cargo of magical crayons. Gurple breaks several--each snap releasing a random item from the crayon (a tablecloth, quails, a skateboard, some lights, a hockey stick, and a lampshade)--and becomes progressively more frustrated by the objects' perceived uselessness. Meanwhile, clever Preen quietly gathers everything up, fabricating repairs for their disabled ship. With the help of some final articles (toilet paper and a panda), Preen completes the repairs, three child commanders appear, and the ship blasts off again. A final illustration depicts a young girl in bed gazing at the moon, surrounded by objects from the story. Park's homage to creativity underscores how handy unlikely items can be; Preen ties the tablecloth to gather the crayons, which the quails then ferry to the ship, for example. Ohi's brightly hued digital illustrations combine hyperrealistic crayons (resembling photographs) with less vibrant cartoon art that seems to be drawn with crayons. A clever nod to imagination and ingenuity.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The spaceship carrying the robots Gurple and Preen, a crayon-drawn human crew in boxed "pods," and a cargo of crayons has crashed on a desolate planet. "How are we ever going to repair the ship?" frets Park's (Nya's Long Walk) pessimistic, purple Gurple: "We need solar-powered batteries, fusion plasma engines, magnetic force fields." Gurple proceeds to snap a series of crayons in half and fume that the drawing each emits (a blue tablecloth, a flock of brown quails) is useless. But Preen, who has a snappy bow propeller atop her bright green domed body, carries away the contents, incorporates or enlists them into a cleverly improvised repair job (in a possible Anne Lamott reference, "Preen rounded up the quails, bird by bird by bird"). When the awakened crew expresses admiration, Breen explains, via the sheepish Gurple's translation, that her method is "the way you do anything hard... Step by step by step." The story begins with more of a lurch than a smooth liftoff, and the hazy initial definition of "pods" may confuse readers, but the protagonists' relationship--reminiscent of C-3PO and R2-D2--gives it ballast. Ohi's (I'm Worried) energetic digital cartooning, which includes elements of crayoning and collage, captures the fun of seeing a robot MacGyver making change, one task at a time. Ages 4--8. (Aug.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
Gurple (a gangly purple robot with green appendages) and Preen (a diminutive green robot with some neat purple accessories) have crash-landed on an alien planet. Their cargo -- a bunch of brand-new crayons -- has scattered everywhere, and the robots must retrieve it all. The crayons are actually containers; it's not until breaking them that the robots (and we) can see what's inside. Gurple is perplexed and frustrated ("a TABLECLOTH? What are we supposed to do with that?"); Preen (who communicates in beeps) thoughtfully gets to work repairing the ship. Finally, the mission's commander is released from her crayon, and after being brought up to speed, the explorers are on their way, blasting back off into outer space. The last page brings us down to Earth, as the "commander" is revealed to be a little girl in her bedroom, surrounded by robot toys, crayons, and space-and-science paraphernalia -- gazing out her bedroom window at the night sky. In the category of they-were-toys-all-along picture books, this one stands out, as the child's imagined scenarios -- and Park's and Ohi's storytelling -- are particularly creative and freewheeling. The dialogue, especially Gurple's interjections ("Zap my apps!" "Bits and bytes!"), is bright and witty, as are the digital crayon-box illustrations with lots of dimension and plenty to look at -- and starring an endearing android odd-couple pair. Elissa Gershowitz September/October 2020 p.70(c) Copyright 2020. 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
Seemingly insurmountable problems are defeated one step at a time. Gurple, a purple robot, is bereft. Her spaceship has crashed, and all the giant crayons that serve as cargo pods have spilled out. Each crayon, when broken in half, might yield something to fix the ship, but to Gurple's consternation their contents seem useless. Only Preen, Gurple's faithful, mostly silent companion sees this "junk" for what it is. A string of lights, a skateboard, a hockey stick, and even a lampshade all have their uses. When the ship's multiracial human crew awakens from suspended animation, the ship is fixed. How? As Gurple translates for Preen, "the way you do anything hard…step by step by step." Seeming chaos can overwhelm young and old alike, so Park's message to take it slow should be appreciated by all (she even works in a clever reference to Anne Lamotte's classic writing manual, Bird by Bird). Readers who peer closely at the logic of the book, though, may find themselves scratching their heads. Why do the crayons yield such disparate, unrelated items? Who is the kid staring out the window at the moon at the end of the book? Fortunately, the lively cartoon art, featuring digitally collaged crayons, is consistently bright, colorful, and funny. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53% of actual size.) A bumpy ride to a worthy message that's still worth the trip. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
