Three might just be a crowd for this series.
Can an old fox learn new tricks? He’ll sure try!
A fox doll joins Pig and Fox for the duo’s third outing, spelling double trouble for poor Pig. As with the two previous titles, A Pig, a Fox, and a Box (2015) and A Pig, a Fox, and Stinky Socks (2019), Fox plays tricks on his pal Pig that don’t quite go as planned. First, Fox places his new doll atop a high wall of blocks and calls out to Pig. Pig mistakes the fox doll for the real deal and rushes to rescue his friend from that precarious position, accidentally knocking down the wall and—“Oh no!”—burying Fox in the rubble. For the next trick, Fox knocks on Pig’s door and uses the doll as a decoy in an attempted surprise. The plan backfires when—“CRACK!”—the door swings to hit Fox hiding beside it: “Ouch.” Will Fox survive for a third trick or call it quits? Using fewer than 130 words, Fenske recycles his slapstick formula alongside repeated phrases to effectively entertain emerging readers. The dialogue-driven story helpfully uses color-coded speech bubbles to identify speakers. Colored backgrounds (some full, some partial) delineate most comics panels but lack outlines and are sometimes unclear. Though most will love the series’ familiar characters and cartoon violence, Pig’s oafish antics—and the repeated textual emphasis on his size—play into fat stereotypes. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7.6-by-10.2-inch double-page spreads viewed at 89% of actual size.)
Three might just be a crowd for this series. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9212-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
