Sure to “beak” readers’ interest.
A cow searches for a new audience and finds a friend.
In this sequel to Interrupting Cow (2020), the eponymous bovine’s chickens have come home to roost, so to speak, as none of the other cows want to hear her tired, interruption-filled joke anymore. The cows almost immediately race away, “kicking up dirt and irritation.” Their departure warns the other barnyard animals, who quickly follow before Interrupting Cow gets too close. Even Owl, who is usually kind, skirts around the cow’s punchline. Lonely and a little sad, Interrupting Cow walks and walks until she comes to an “endless gray road.” On the other side of the road, Rooster keeps trying to cross, but cars, trucks, and tractors scare him off. Interrupting Cow brazenly crosses to Rooster’s side and butts into his situation. As she helps him cross, the two bond over their sense of humor, falling down into helpless giggles. Yolen tackles yet another classic inane joke and infuses its subject with heart and humor. With a total vocabulary of around 250 words and their variants, this sequel is slightly more advanced than its predecessor. But, with at most 19 lines per double-page spread, the text remains accessible to emerging readers. Dreidemy’s full-color cartoon illustrations add context clues. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-12-inch double-page spreads viewed at 76% actual size.)
Sure to “beak” readers’ interest. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8160-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 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
© Copyright 2024 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.
