A menagerie of fun that readers will revisit time and time again.
A cacophony of animals sneak their way into an elderly, nearsighted white woman’s home to get out of the rain, producing a funny, musical menagerie.
After a cat meows its way from the pouring rain into the home of a white-haired woman wearing Coke-bottle glasses, a clever cow standing nearby percolates an idea. The cow meows, the woman trustingly opens the door, and the cow purrs her way in. A pig that witnessed the occurrence has now learned how it can find a way indoors. “Meow,” says the pig, as a chicken watches. The chicken makes its way in with a “buk buk meow buk,” to be followed by a horse, a goat, and a duck. One particularly hysterical spread depicts the benevolent woman petting what she believes to be a cat (it’s in fact a purring goat) as the chicken grooms its leg, catlike, and the other animals wreak havoc around them. It’s in the same spread that readers will see that the original feline tenant is far from amused and so commits to ratting out the farm animals to the bespectacled woman. Creator of Chickens to the Rescue (2006) and its companions, Himmelman draws inspiration from his repertoire to populate his amusing story. With minimal text, the book encourages readers to study the animals’ expressive facial cues—from an irritated cat to an eyebrow-raising cow.
A menagerie of fun that readers will revisit time and time again. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-378-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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