Welcome Little Jumbo! We hope we’ll see more of you.
In Koehler’s picture-book debut, Little Jumbo repeatedly tries the patience of his dad but then does his best to make everything better.
Before the story starts, readers know that Dad is in for it. The title page shows a slumbering, pajama-clad elephant about to be pounced on by his son, who is already in midair. On the copyright page, Dad rushes to stop the tyke from consuming a spoonful of paste. So readers will understand the opening line: “Little Jumbo’s dad was having a bad day.” The understated text is paired with the irrepressible son’s antics throughout, maintaining a constant level of hilarity. One spread’s matter-of-fact text reads, “Dad put raisins in Little Jumbo’s oatmeal. / He should have known what a mess that would make.” The accompanying illustration depicts spunky and joyous Little Jumbo standing on his chair and peppering the ceiling with a splatter of rejected raisins. Dad has had enough—the two elephants have a standoff trunk to trunk. One timeout later, the young elephant starts trying to change the mood of his father. From a hug to playing catch, sharing a huge ice cream cone, fishing and reading a bedtime story, Little Jumbo sincerely does his best to make up for his behavior—but the final page makes it clear that the challenges will continue tomorrow.
Welcome Little Jumbo! We hope we’ll see more of you. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3922-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
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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