An amusing account of undersea shenanigans
It appears there once was a time when a squid’s 10 arms “were all of equal length.”
In this modern pourquoi tale, a shivering 10-armed squid dressed only in a “splendid silvery scarf, knitted most lovingly by his mother,” nabs an octopus’s sweater, a fiddler crab’s mitten, and a moray eel’s “spectacular cap.” But the three gang up to foil his thievery and get their clothing back. The story is told simply but with lively, Kipling-inspired language. At the climax, the squid extends a tentacle to lift the cap, and “the eel nabbed one arm. The crab grabbed another,” and a wordless spread follows, showing a three-way tug of war. Another, final wordless spread suggests the thief may lose even more. Graber’s cheerful illustrations depict an appropriately dark underwater world. His cartoon-style animals have vaguely human faces with large eyes. The blue squid’s mantle looks a lot like a hoodie. The purple octopus’s incongruously long eyelashes nearly disappear as her color darkens with rage. The green eel’s fur-lined cap is particularly amusing. An endnote adds a few fast facts about squid—enough, perhaps, to make storytime listeners want to know more about this less well-known cephalopod.
An amusing account of undersea shenanigans . (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4556-2388-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
