A good choice for emerging poetry fans.
This sweet collection of haiku captures special moments of friendship and appreciation from a child’s point of view.
Love is explored in its broadest sense as a cast of winsome, ethnically diverse children are featured in everyday activities such as making snow angels, riding a bicycle and sharing a purple Popsicle. The pale watercolor backgrounds provide a soft, cozy environment in which the children begin their day as a cardinal chirps outside a window or several friends gather around a campfire to toast marshmallows. Snyder chooses words familiar to new readers while keeping the imagery and language lively and fun. One poem focuses on the reunion of a child and pet: “wiggle-wag tail love, / sloppy-smoochy-poochy love, / true-furry-friend love!” Another addresses a nighttime comfort: “shiny mister moon— / your smile keeps me company / when the lights go out,” while still another celebrates a newfound friend: “you be my jelly, / i’ll be your peanut butter— / let’s stick together!” It appears the book’s design aims to make it accessible to new poets and readers. All the text is lowercase, and much of the punctuation is limited to dashes and exclamation points. And most importantly, each poem satisfies when read aloud.
A good choice for emerging poetry fans. (Picture book/poetry. 4-7)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-375-86750-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
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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