A clever tale of a know-it-all who at last learns to listen.
An aim to please isn’t enough when preconceptions rule.
Owl, a somewhat pompous old-guard avian gentleman given to phrases such as “egads” and “my good man,” holds an annual autumn banquet for his animal friends. (All are anthropomorphized, recognizable from two previous books, and, on a non-naturalistic scale, almost all are the same size.) Famous didgeridoo player Platypus unexpectedly accepts a dinner invitation, putting fanboy Owl in a dither: What to serve? Reasoning that “Platypus is a bit like a reptile, but also a bit like a bird, and also a bit like a mammal,” Owl makes several assumptions about what the guest of honor would like, asking his friends for confirmation. Surely Platypus will enjoy beetles added to the cricket chutney (“for extra crunch”)? And certainly milk—something all mammals drink—should be on the menu? Owl’s friends gently disabuse him of his notions—and point out that they haven’t exactly been enjoying the food he’s been serving up. Bear proposes asking Platypus what he wants, but Owl prefers to dictate the menu; ultimately, a shortage of side dishes prompts a potluck and a sensible resolution. Rendered in an autumnal palette, the colorful illustrations are amusing and accomplished, the plot brisk enough, and the point obvious but worth making. Owl’s problems are self-created: perfectionism, an inability to accept help, and untested beliefs.
A clever tale of a know-it-all who at last learns to listen. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9781623543716
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
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