Welcome back, Danny. Let’s hear some more stories about you, your new puppy, and your big, old friend.
The venerable I Can Read! series is extending Syd Hoff’s run with new books written and drawn in his familiar style.
This time, Danny and the dinosaur are in the park with Danny’s new puppy. As Danny gives commands to his furry friend, the dinosaur responds, usually with comic results. “Roll over” leads to squished bushes, “fetch” results in an uprooted tree, and “sit” equals one less functional bench in the park. The three friends end up having a great time at the pool, but they have to part for the evening, leaving the dinosaur to make his lonely trudge back to the museum. Danny comes up with a solution that makes everyone happy. Syd Hoff’s familiar style will attract new readers looking for more of Danny, and they will not be disappointed. Each illustration reflects the text and makes reading any challenging words manageable. The plot is straightforward and familiar and the ending, satisfying. Who wouldn’t like to have a sleepover in the museum on the back of a friendly dinosaur? Primary school librarians and teachers will be glad to welcome Danny and his dinosaur back onto the shelves, even if the words and pictures are by new creators.
Welcome back, Danny. Let’s hear some more stories about you, your new puppy, and your big, old friend. (Early reader. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-228153-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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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