As comforting as a hot cup of tea, a scone, or the view from a double-decker bus on a beautiful sunny day.
This murine essential worker returns in three small stories packed full of charm.
Everyone’s favorite delivery mouse returns after his eponymous debut (2019) with tales as succinct as they are comforting. “The Radio Mystery Book” informs readers that Motor Mouse loves mysteries but doesn’t read them at bedtime because they keep him up at night. When a radio station starts playing an audiobook, a chapter a day, he discovers there’s more than one way to enjoy a good book. “Day of the Double-Decker” begins with tragedy (a motorcar in need of repairs) and quickly turns around when our hero finds that his public transportation system is “full of kindness.” Finally, “A Good Game of Croquet” shows what happens when peaceful intentions wreak havoc with Motor Mouse’s regular croquet game with his brother Valentino. Conveyed with Rylant’s customary charisma, the tone of these tales retains its light touch with familiar characters and safe, comfortable settings. The art takes great pleasure in the smallest details, such as Valentino, natty in straw hat and spectator shoes, or, in another scene, a keen example of what would happen if Andy Warhol had ever painted chickens.
As comforting as a hot cup of tea, a scone, or the view from a double-decker bus on a beautiful sunny day. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9128-0
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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