Scooter’s adventure is suitable for young children, while the endnotes will interest general readers of all ages.
Readers meet many animals common to U.S. cities when a shaggy, terrierlike dog slips away from home for a day and wanders around his neighborhood.
“Nature is all around us, even in the city. Follow Scooter as he uses his senses to discover city critters.” Despite the dog’s friendly, winsome expression, children over age 7 will probably chafe at the command and the ensuing simplistic story. Little ones, however, will enjoy the many opportunities for seeing the animals that Scooter notices—and those he does not. Throughout his odyssey, every double-page spread is crammed with digitally produced, hyperrealistic urban scenes full of flora, fauna, people, and human-created objects. There is a bit of plot, as Scooter’s responsible African-American owners search for their lost dog and post signs. Juvenile humor enters in the form of bird poo on the dog’s head. After the predictable, comforting ending, there are excellent notes for teachers and students. Unfortunately, the story itself and the illustrations have an overworked quality that may lead readers to give up before reaching the endnotes. Also, the text inexplicably and regularly uses italics in a way that detracts from natural scanning. (“Scooter isn’t aware of the pigeon feathers….But he soon becomes aware of an unfamiliar sound.”)
Scooter’s adventure is suitable for young children, while the endnotes will interest general readers of all ages. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58469-553-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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