A young rider imagines the horses she’ll have when she grows up in this charming equestrian alphabet. To introduce each letter, Haas and Apple (Runaway Radish, not reviewed) highlight different horse breeds and horse-related words. The opening spread, for example, shows “Spotted Appaloosas”—with the “A” highlighted in bold—next to “Arabian steeds.” Later, the girl dreams that “[Her] Lippizans will perform lively leaps, the lightest of lengthenings, lovely levades.” For the letter “X,” Haas recalls the Greek general Xenophon, “who wrote the first text about horses.” Says the narrator, “I’ll examine it often for expert advice.” Rendered in colored pencils, and defined by soft yet studied strokes, Apple’s illustrations portray the animals’ strength and beauty. With centerpiece sketches often flanked by smaller drawings, there is much to admire: a double-page spread for “Q” and “R” shows the narrator touching a blue ribbon to the neck of her “Quarter horse”; seven smaller drawings show them “barrel racing,” “reining” and “calf roping” in a rodeo. Haas’s “More About Horses” section provides detail, highlighting in bold print the breeds and terminology mentioned in the story. While sure to entice horse lovers, Haas and Apple’s offering will also appeal to youngsters as they explore unfamiliar territory in a well-worn format. A fitting addition to the creator’s equine oeuvre; a fine supplement to the ABC canon. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-688-17880-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2001
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
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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