Young audiences will relish the outcome of this simple trickster tale and likely be startled into laughter by its edgy...
Burningham charges up selected and rearranged illustrations from one of his early works with a new text that adds considerable bite.
Retold in the 1968 version (titled The Extraordinary Tug-of-War) by Letta Schatz from an Ethiopian tale, the story features a clever hare who challenges scornful Hippo and Elephant to a tug of war, then puts them on opposite ends of the same rope. Burningham does away with the original’s now-stodgy folklorese: “And Elephant would bellow, billowing with laughter, ‘Ho, Hare! I hear you are called “Big Ears!” Big Ears! You! Please look at me!’ ” He replaces it with contemporary, and much more abusive, language: “And Elephant would say, ‘Hare, you really are a feeble idiot, with your twitching nose and whiskers. That’s all you have.’ ” By the time the animal dupes discover the deception and vow revenge (“Let’s get the little runt!”), Hare is long gone. In contrast to the sharp tone of the text, though the trim size of this new edition is only about an inch more all around, the spattered, scribbly illustrations look overly enlarged, with diffuse lines and dimly lit, indistinct details. No matter: They still serve to convey the thwarted bullies’ bulk and rage.
Young audiences will relish the outcome of this simple trickster tale and likely be startled into laughter by its edgy language. The little runts. (no source note) (Picture book/folktale. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6575-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013
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 dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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