The art of optical illusions provides creative fodder for young guessing-game enthusiasts. In this modern twist on a classic form, two unseen characters’ cheerful banter provides clues to an unknown object’s identity. Each tries to persuade the other to see his or her version of the picture; their interactions’ brevity provide a subtle charm. “Here, look at my duck through my binoculars.” “Sorry, still a rabbit.” The central character in this slight story is Lichtenheld’s ink, watercolor and colored-pencil art. Two laid-back, parallel rabbit ears—or a duck’s bill depending on the reader’s focus—serve as the dominant image against the soft blue background, occupying the center of the composition even as its context changes. Thick black outlines perfectly complement the solid illustration within; its observant single eye seamlessly appears to look in opposite directions. The images displayed are also reflected in the endpaper’s billowy clouds, providing a whimsical touch. Once youngsters solve this puzzle, they’ll be clamoring for the next. Now is that a brachiosaurus or an anteater? (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8118-6865-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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