A satisfying ending ensures this nighttime adventure will soothe even the wildest child.
A young boy yearns for the return of wild buffalo, and his vivid dreams bring them back to the prairie where they belong.
Declan longs to see majestic herds of buffalo like those in the stories his grandmother tells. He wishes he could feel how “the whole world trembled” when millions of buffalo still roamed the land. Kokum explains that “now…those Buffalo live in the sky” but says they will return someday. “I wish those Buffalo would draw near and come home,” Declan says, and during a starry night lit by the full moon, his imagination allows him to free the “wild, wonderful beasts” from captivity. But the creatures wreak havoc on Kokum’s garden, and Declan realizes he has no way to control the chaos. “This land must have been less crowded a long time ago,” reflects Declan, and he calls on the Creator to take the wild animals back, even though “without the Buffalo, the prairie didn’t seem nearly as wild.” Through Kokum and Declan, Havrelock (Saddle Lake Cree Nation) explores the importance of buffalo to Indigenous peoples, while illustrator Whitecalf (Plains Cree) uses bold shades of blue, red, and violet to create a child’s view of mysterious nighttime imaginings. Both text and illustrations carefully situate characters in the here and now with details such as Kokum’s smartphone and yoga gazebo. The 2014 Buffalo Treaty is appended.
A satisfying ending ensures this nighttime adventure will soothe even the wildest child. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77321-533-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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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