Delivers an important lesson with an emotional wallop.
In this inspired tale of metafiction, best friends Squirrel and Bird get ready for a concert, with the help—and hindrance—of a meddling narrator.
Offering condescending and reductive characterizations of both creatures, the unseen narrator immediately rouses Bird’s ire. Squirrel is “loud! Very LOUD!” Bird, on the other hand, “hardly makes a sound at all.” “Squirrel is busy. Busy, busy, busy!” But Bird “prefers to sit and do nothing.” Bird chafes at these flattening descriptions—all of which contradict what’s actually going on in the illustrations as the two animals cheerfully prepare for their performance. As the event draws closer, the narrator lays it on thick (“Squirrel is confident. Bird is shy”) until finally Bird has had “ENOUGH!” and proclaims that all creatures are far more multifaceted than they might appear. Chastened, the narrator agrees: “Bird is a LOT of things. And Squirrel is, too!” Baker’s minimal text is ably supported by Thomas’ muted artwork. Featuring grays and warm yellows, the images evoke the feeling of a classic storybook—one that’s cleverly subverted as the narrative progresses. Dynamic layouts—the occasional use of panels, the word “ENOUGH!” taking up an entire spread—add panache. Bird’s comments are rendered in a unique, flowing typeface. The message is clear: It’s foolish and limiting to attempt to put anyone in a box; there’s so much more to all of us than meets the eye.
Delivers an important lesson with an emotional wallop. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2025
ISBN: 9781664300866
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 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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