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SHELTER

Claire and Leng have created a beautiful tale that reads like a fable to teach giving and kindness, with artwork that warms...

In the woods, families of animals awaken and are eating breakfast when the birds bring news of a winter storm approaching, which spurs them into action gathering food and supplies.

After a full day of gathering, the animals are all safe in their homes. The winds pick up as two strangers walk into the clearing, a tall one and a small one: two bears in need of shelter. The families inside watch as they come near, wondering who they are and what they want. They knock on each door, offering tea in exchange for warmth, food, light, but each family says they don’t have enough to spare and turns them away. They plan to hunker down near a hill when they hear Little Fox behind them. He brings them a lantern, and they’re grateful for the kindness as the snow falls, soon covering the woods. Little Fox’s kindness is returned when danger comes to the fox den, and his family is spared a terrible fate thanks to the strangers in need. Claire’s prose is rhythmic and gentle, with enjoyable repetition and memorable lines that lend themselves to being read aloud. Leng’s earth-toned watercolors and light strokes of pen and ink have a wonderful messiness about them, and her clothed, anthropomorphic animals are drawn more gesturally than the rounded cartoony look found in many picture books.

Claire and Leng have created a beautiful tale that reads like a fable to teach giving and kindness, with artwork that warms up as its characters do. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-77138-927-3

Page Count: 42

Publisher: Kids Can

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017

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DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE SLEIGH!

A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.

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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

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THE WONKY DONKEY

Hee haw.

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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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