A fun romp with an anthropomorphized swine will leave beginning readers “hog wild” at their accomplishments.
Boris, an ugly but somehow truly winsome warthog, is back for another outing.
Formatted like an early chapter book rather than in the typical, larger early-reader configuration, this effort is intended for a rather young audience, with just a sentence or two at most of fairly simple, large-print text per page and ample full-color, cartoonlike illustrations. Though he already has lots of pets, Boris is determined to get himself a Komodo dragon. Does it matter to him that these oversized lizards might not make good pets since they have sharp teeth and poisonous spit? Not at all. When his parents don’t provide the desired pet, he hatches a scheme to get the local zoo to bring theirs to his house for a vacation. Certain it must be coming, he invites his entire class to stop by to see it. When the zoo demurs, Boris has to think fast—and substitutes a tiny skink and a good story. For a warthog with only a handful of facial expressions, Boris conveys a lot of emotion with expressive body language. He encounters situations that readers will recognize and identify with, and they just possibly will laugh out loud at his creative solution.
A fun romp with an anthropomorphized swine will leave beginning readers “hog wild” at their accomplishments. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: June 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-48446-6
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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
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Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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