Appealing as both guidebook and story.
How to pick a pet.
“Hey there!” begins the friendly, omniscient narrator. “Are you looking for a pet?” The unnamed main character—a child with light tan skin, a black pageboy, and round, periwinkle glasses that match their large, periwinkle overalls—looks dizzied by the number of choices and squinches up their eyes in thought. The narrator then asks a number of open-ended questions, encouraging both protagonist and readers to think for themselves about what kind of pet best meets their needs: talkative or comforting, cuddly or only for observation, quotidian or uncommon. The questions are practical as well as emotional, meaning that this title would be as comfortable in a fiction section as nonfiction. The illustrations, acrylic on wood, are blocky and warm, and each animal is rendered as an affectionate approximation of itself. At one brief moment the text oversteps, assuring readers that if they have an animal companion, “You will not be lonely, and if you are scared, you will know that it’s okay because your pet will tell you.” It also skirts the hard but inevitable loss of a pet that children often need support dealing with. The end becomes more specific and less general, as the child decides that a turtle is “perfectly right for [them],” but on the whole many children will relate to this exploration. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Appealing as both guidebook and story. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-302599-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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