Hopping is not hard, for a frog, but when he asks other animals to join him, he finds that bats flap, lobsters snap, and dust flies when an especially large rhinoceros stomps. None of the creatures can do what the frog does so well, until he meets a rabbit, and it becomes a friendship bound by bounding. Vere’s creatures are reminiscent of Sandra Boynton’s: smiling, bright, and lively, unrestrained by this board book’s small dimensions. A hopping good time. (Board book. 1-4)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30131-1
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
For this traditional lullaby—“Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry./Go to sleepy, little baby./And when you wake, you’ll have cake/and all the pretty little horses”—Saport has taken her cues from the American South, where the song may have originated. The images she concocts are theatrical, with bakers and cakes streaming by, and a small boy atop a horse as it, and the rest of the horses, arching through the sky, pull an orange-colored carriage with a baker at the reins. The elegantly modulated pastels give an impression of twilight, while elements dusted in white and gold shine luminously, offering comfort. (Picture book/folklore. 2-4)
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-93097-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
PLB 0-688-13974-4 Stutson’s rhymed depiction of the cowboy’s life on the range is merry, but the watercolor locales steal the show. The text is unintrusive: “Rising slowly, cowpokes wake./Boots and vests and leather chaps./Bright bandanna. Cow poke hats./Eating flapjacks stack by stack.” San Souci sets the cowpokes’ actions the big open: mesas in the distance, aromatic sage, the blue sky high and wide. His cowpokes (among them, Austin, who is “quieter than a hole in the ground,”) are good time, strong-jawed caricatures. These pages offer a notion of how cowboys spend their days and a distinct sense of the Western landscape, which beckons enticingly. It is a fusion of text and art that works admirably well. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13973-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
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