  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 09/15/2016 *Starred Review* Gideon knows that having a home, toys, and nice parents should be enough, but it’s not, because Gideon wants to be a hero. Perhaps his red cape is a giveaway, or the drawings of knights plastering his bedroom walls, or maybe the pile of impaled teddy bears he’s dispatched with his wooden sword. Groenink adroitly captures such everyday scenes in marvelous, muted pencil illustrations, but the colors grow rich when Gideon’s imagination takes charge. Over four double-page spreads, Gideon envisions himself as the hero in classic fairy tales, such as Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk, each one comically distilled to a breathless run-on sentence. Much to Gideon’s surprise, most of these characters weren’t actually brave, strong, or clever. They were simply “at the right place at the right time.” So Gideon resolves to be vigilant, ready to be heroic at a moment’s notice. Readers will have a good laugh watching the caped, stern-faced boy wander the neighborhood, so focused on being focused that he misses glaringly obvious opportunities to help. Heide’s writing is filled with wit and humor, and her choice of a fairy-tale-obsessed boy is a breath of fresh air. For all his determination to be heroic, Gideon is a perfectly regular kid, and readers will love him all the more because of it. - Copyright 2016 Booklist. School Library Journal - 10/01/2016 K-Gr 2—Gideon is a nice boy who lives in a nice house, has nice parents, and possesses plenty of toys. He should be satisfied, but he wants more. Gideon wants to be a hero, the kind he sees on the front page of the newspaper. Thinking long and hard about the heroes in the fairy tales he has read, he concludes that it isn't necessary to kiss a princess (or a snoring elderly babysitter) or even to be strong, brave, or clever. Gideon decides that all he has to do is be in the right place at the right time and pay attention. So he goes to the supermarket, where he finds himself surrounded by other customers cheering him on as the 10,000th customer. His picture appears in the newspaper, and he even gets a kiss on the cheek from a girl. Gideon becomes the hero he's always wanted to be. The narrative alone is strong enough, but the true story lies in Groenink's soft illustrations. Gideon is so wrapped up in his candy bar and becoming a hero that he does not notice what's happening in the background. To find out the identity of the true hero in this book, readers and listeners alike must follow Gideon's own advice about keeping their eyes open. This narrative is filled with tongue-in-cheek humor but can be a starting point for a discussion on what makes a hero; educators may want to use it as part of a fairy-tale unit. VERDICT A valuable addition to any collection and sure to please readers and listeners alike.—Betsy Davison, Cortland Free Library, NY - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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