A sweet and candid representation of anxiety, with a creative twist.
Phil the groundhog fights nerves on his family’s biggest day of the year.
The night before Groundhog Day, Phil is too worried to sleep. His family has high expectations for him tomorrow—what if he messes up when he makes his big announcement? With some assistance from little sister Marla, however, Phil pulls it off. Together, the siblings tell the waiting crowd of anthropomorphic animals that they still have six weeks of winter to go. Readers who have felt overwhelmed by anxiety will relate to Phil, whose feelings are cleverly captured by the illustrations. In one scene, Phil sits in bed surrounded by looming thoughts of his parents and siblings, who dwarf him in size. On another page, a winding trail of questions swirls around him: “What if I shake? What if my voice is too soft?” And when the big day rolls around, the other animals are depicted in shadowy silhouettes with unnerving stares. Happily, though, readers also see Phil try a variety of coping methods: distracting himself by making pancakes, talking through his feelings and rehearsing with Marla, and ultimately seeking out help in making a successful proclamation. His world brims with delightful details, from the little underground rooms for each member of the family to the adorable accessories depicted on the endpapers. The book concludes with a recipe for “Phil’s Pancakes” and a brief explanation of Groundhog Day.
A sweet and candid representation of anxiety, with a creative twist. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9780823453870
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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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
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