A delightful introduction to a famous artist for young cat fanciers and art lovers alike.
Chika, a white ceramic cat in Claude Monet’s Giverny house, comes to life and leads the painter on a merry chase through four of his paintings.
When Monet taps the cat three times, the frolicsome feline jumps off her green pillow and enters The Luncheon. Monet clambers in after her. Taking time to sip milk from a teacup and eat some crusty bread, she saunters through the painted garden just ahead of Monet, escaping by jumping out of this bucolic scene and entering The Gare Saint-Lazare. The portly painter finds himself on the ground in this painting, searching for Chika. Kids will spot her amid the crowds, the steam, and the trains, and then find her in a train window, leaving the station. Chika and the painter visit two more paintings, The Boardwalk on the Beach at Trouville, and one of his iconic water-lily paintings.The silliness of the rather elderly White man in blue suit and straw hat climbing in and out of paintings and the cat’s amusing interactions with the painted characters and landscapes will keep readers chuckling while they get a taste of the famous French impressionist’s oeuvre. The textured brush strokes of the original oils are in evidence while the artist and his cat are rendered in looser, cartoony illustrations that stand out from the paintings. An afterword provides facts about the actual ceramic cat. For a more detailed look at the painter’s methods, read Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré’s Mornings With Monet (2021). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A delightful introduction to a famous artist for young cat fanciers and art lovers alike. (afterword) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30613-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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
Totes adorbs.
A cuddly, squishy pug’s puggy-wuggy diary.
Equipped with both #pugunicorn and #pughotdog outfits, pug Baron von Bubbles (aka Bub) is the kind of dog that always dresses to impress. Bub also makes lots of memorable faces, such as the “Hey, you’re not the boss of me!” expression aimed at Duchess, the snooty pink house cat. Some of Bub’s favorite things include skateboarding, a favorite teddy, and eating peanut butter. Bub also loves Bella, who adopted Bub from a fair—it was “love at first sniff.” Together, Bub and Bella do a lot of arts and crafts. Their latest project: entering Bella’s school’s inventor challenge by making a super-duper awesome rocket. But, when the pesky neighborhood squirrel, Nutz, makes off with Bub’s bear, Bub accidentally ruins their project. How will they win the contest? More importantly, how will Bella ever forgive him? May’s cutesy, full-color cartoon art sets the tone for this pug-tastic romp for the new-to–chapter-books crowd. Emojilike faces accentuate Bub’s already expressive character design. Bub’s infectious first-person narration pushes the silly factor off the charts. In addition to creating the look and feel of a diary, the lined paper helps readers follow the eight-chapter story. Most pages have fewer than five sentences, often broken into smaller sections. Additional text appears in color-coded speech bubbles. Bella presents white.
Totes adorbs. (Fiction. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-53003-2
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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