The winsome warthog is appealing as he blithely hops, splashes, hums, and wanders his way through his day, but it doesn’t...
An anthropomorphic warthog encounters items, animals, and plants in quantities from one through 10 while exploring the savanna that surrounds his African home.
Jaunty rhyming verses describe each discovery, from “one scoop of honey” through “ten footprints, pair by pair,” but numerals appear only on the endpapers, not within Black’s text. Each verse begins with the phrase, “A warthog went a-wandering,” a pleasing repetition that adds a sense of structure. Most of the things the warthog finds pose no real threat (“two angry bees” are easily eluded) or appear friendly, like the fluttering butterflies, but the footprints do lead him into a potentially perilous encounter. Luckily, if implausibly, he escapes and scampers home safely. Beardshaw’s attractive collage-and-paint illustrations provide a colorful if generic setting and plenty of details to pore over. Varying patterns and textures add interest to the simple stylized shapes. The inclusion of a lurking lion in several scenes foreshadows the final encounter; his cheerful cartoon-style expression should reassure young listeners that all ends well. Differently sized and shaped flaps, some with cutouts, conceal some lines of the text and open to reveal clever transformations. Unfortunately, the storyline meanders, more a vehicle for the counting exercise than an actual plot.
The winsome warthog is appealing as he blithely hops, splashes, hums, and wanders his way through his day, but it doesn’t quite add up to an exciting adventure. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9323-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated.
Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault’s classic alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets the Halloween treatment.
Chung follows the original formula to the letter. In alphabetical order, each letter climbs to the top of a tree. They are knocked back to the ground in a jumble before climbing up in sequence again. In homage to the spooky holiday theme, they scale a “creaky old tree,” and a ghostly jump scare causes the pileup. The chunky, colorful art is instantly recognizable. The charmingly costumed letters (“H swings a tail. / I wears a patch. J and K don / bows that don’t match”) are set against a dark backdrop, framed by pages with orange or purple borders. The spreads feature spiderwebs and jack-o’-lanterns. The familiar rhyme cadence is marred by the occasional clunky or awkward phrase; in particular, the adapted refrain of “Chicka chicka tricka treat” offers tongue-twisting fun, but it’s repeatedly followed by the disappointing half-rhyme “Everybody sneaka sneak.” Even this odd construction feels shoehorned into place, since “sneaking” makes little sense when every character in the book is climbing together. The final line of the book ends on a more satisfying note, with “Everybody—time to eat!”
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665954785
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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