A gentle story about the joyful discoveries and courage that can be found beyond one’s comfort zone.
Hop into this picture book for an exciting adventure with Rabbit.
Rabbit is supposed to stay close to the burrow and the other rabbits. When she tries to pull up a stubborn carrot from the ground near the edge of the burrow, she falls into another hole! She tumbles down the underground tunnel, shoots out the other end, and plunges into a river. She scrabbles onto a floating log, gets off when she reaches land, and notices that a big, scary, hairy, clawed “not-rabbit” is following her. At first, she hides; but when the not-rabbit leaves her something yummy to eat, she decides to venture out. She meets other kinds of animals and tries nonrabbit things like hanging upside down, flying, camouflaging, swinging, and dancing. From a treetop the next morning she sees a familiar hill in the distance and sets off to her burrow with her new friends. Meserve tells a wonderful tale of unexpected adventure that demonstrates the fun of trying new things. The digital and mixed media illustrations are delicate with mostly warm, calming colors and scenes bathed in soft light. However, the spreads showing Rabbit with her new companions are more vibrant, underscoring the excitement of novelty. Some spreads use panels of continuous narrative art to compress action and create drama and a sense of movement. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gentle story about the joyful discoveries and courage that can be found beyond one’s comfort zone. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68263-375-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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
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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