It may feel as though there are a few too many dinosaur picture books around, but for how well this one brings lovable Sadie...
The canon of books about oversized and/or inappropriate pets for kids gets yet another addition, but with a dinosaur, this one rises above the herd.
At an animal shelter, Ben can’t decide from among more than 20 “cute dogs and funny dogs and loud dogs and smelly dogs,” but the giant Tyrannosaurus rex in a nearby cage seems just right. Ben calls her “Sadie,” Sadie goes, “ROAR!” and, of course, it’s love at first pet sighting. Things get complicated when it comes to feeding, disposing of dinosaur waste, and even bathing, when Sadie drinks the contents of an entire lake. But the dinosaur comes in handy foiling a fruit-stand robbery, turning Sadie from a town pariah to a beloved fixture: “The most popular dog in town.” The text plays out the drama and redemption in simple, understated prose that gives free rein to Hawkes’ wildly expressive illustrations of Sadie. While brown-skinned, black-haired Ben and the other humans of the book are drawn with dot eyes and in small scale, Sadie is impressively detailed, with big, kind eyes, complexly shaded skin, and a seemingly endless range of emotion. She grins with satisfaction, fetches a robber with steely determination, and enjoys a tickle with a floppy tongue hanging out and feet wiggling in the air.
It may feel as though there are a few too many dinosaur picture books around, but for how well this one brings lovable Sadie to life, it deserves a place on the shelf. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9706-1
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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