Here’s hoping readers feel the same way about school as Stanley does; even if they don’t, though, they are sure to laugh at...
Stanley’s curiosity this time leads him to find out what all the kids do in school every day.
Tired of being left outside all the time, Stanley, Gassy Jack, Alice, and Nutsy (each dog’s personality masterfully captured by Slavin) team up to take on the school. They figure out how to open the huge door, conquer their fears of the school’s great size, and then glory in its delights—the lunches, the kids, running through the hallways and all kinds of places familiar to students everywhere—until they run into a room with no exit and the “toppest dog” of all: the principal (depicted as a no-nonsense black woman). But the fierce-looking administrator just pats the dogs’ heads kindly and then orders them out the door. And the following day, the four friends (and all the dogs they’ve blabbed to) are waiting when the school doors open at the end of the day—because kids are almost as much fun as dogs, and school isn’t far behind. Slavin’s illustrations are a delight, from the dogs’ revels and the kids’ excitement to the postures and facial expressions of the dogs as they await the principal’s judgment. The kids are depicted with a range of skin colors and hair textures, and at least one child is in a wheelchair.
Here’s hoping readers feel the same way about school as Stanley does; even if they don’t, though, they are sure to laugh at the dogs’ adventures. Where will they end up next? (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-77138-096-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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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
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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