Best read for its informational content.
Freddy the Frogcaster learns about tornadoes.
Aspiring meteorologist Freddy has been practicing his weather forecasting. Every weekend he visits Frog News Network to rehearse in front of the cameras. When his weather models predict strong storms, he lets Sally Croaker and Polly Woggins, frogcasters who work for FNN, know what is coming. With the possibility of tornadoes in the near future for the town of Lilypad, Tad Polar, famous storm chaser, comes to town—and he takes Freddy with him in his specially equipped storm-chasing van. They see a tornado and let the local news teams know. The storm is scary, and it does some damage, but everyone survives thanks to Freddy and Tad. Dean’s fourth Freddy the Frogcaster title packs a lot of information on tornado formation and tornado safety into a thin story. The clear, simple language of the story and the seven pages of illustrated aftermatter make this a worthy addition to larger library collections. With Cox’s bright, expressive illustrations of bug-eyed, gape-mouthed frogs, it may even allay some storm fears.
Best read for its informational content. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62157-469-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Regnery Kids
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
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
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