School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-"My mom and dad are broken,/I don't know what to do./My mom and dad have come undone,/I need to find some glue." So begins this singsong story of a little boy's coming to terms with his parents' separation. Warm cartoon illustrations and bouncy rhymes are so in opposition to the serious subject that they almost trivialize it. When the boy visits the glue shop, the owner gives him a quick life lesson that makes him feel better about the situation. "I pull my life together/And smile as I depart./I need to make the best of things,/There is no glue for hearts." While these messages are important, children suffering through real parental breakups may find these easy answers difficult and unfulfilling.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Distraught by his parents' marital difficulties, a boy decides that he needs "parent glue" to "patch their marriage up." A kindly local glue shop owner explains "[t]hat sometimes life works out this way,/ That what must be must be," and gradually the boy comes to understand that "[m]y parents may be broken/ But their love for me is not." Wildish's (All Better) little but large-headed hero is instantly sympathetic in both his determination and vulnerability. A recurring "cracked" motif-doors, trees, and other objects are shown torn in half-underscores how a parental fissure makes a child's entire world feel broken. Many of Gray's (006 and a Half) rhymes come across as platitudes ("The more I hold together/ The more I'm super strong./ The more I'll come to terms with things/ The less it will seem wrong"), but may offer comfort, along with a few choice lines ("sometimes love gets damaged,/ Way beyond repair"; "I need to make the best of things,/ There is no glue for hearts") that should help readers realize that time is most likely to heal the hurt. Ages 5-8. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
