Another delightful addition to the Penny series.
Penny waits all winter long to use her new sled.
After a six-year break (Penny and Her Marble, 2013), anthropomorphic mouse Penny returns for some seasonal fun. It begins with Penny waiting for snow so she can use her new sled. Her parents both say it will snow soon, but she can’t wait. Penny tries everything to will the snow to fall, even wearing mittens to bed. But, as winter continues, there’s still no snow, and Penny must partake in other winter activities with her family. With no snow in sight, she finds new ways to use her sled. Penny uses it to make a fort for her baby siblings and a magic carpet ride for her doll, but she eventually plays with the sled less and less. Soon spring arrives, and Penny proclaims she is done waiting for snow. Mama suggests she wait for something else, and Penny discovers something worth waiting for. Henkes has created yet another charming tale that’s acutely in touch with a child’s thinking and emotions. Through five short chapters, readers experience lessons in patience, creativity, and resourcefulness. In classic Henkes style, the bright watercolor-and-ink illustrations add lovely visual accompaniment. The details in emotions and actions are excellent picture clues for early readers.
Another delightful addition to the Penny series. (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-293453-6
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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
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