A neat look at connections many children can see in action
A cycle of logical syllogisms takes readers from the title stipulation through a series of conclusions that ends at the beginning.
It’s hard to argue with the logic. “If you love honey, / Then you must love honey bees. // If you love honey bees, / It’s no wonder you love dandelions.” Each statement appears on a double-page spread accompanied by a related fact: bees must visit about 2 million flowers to produce a pound of honey, for instance. The chain of affection extends from dandelions to ladybugs to goldenrod to butterflies to clover to the soil to earthworms to mushrooms to oak trees to blue jays to blackberries and back to honeybees and honey. While some of the connections are a bit of a stretch, the short explanatory text generally explains the logic, and it is summarized in the backmatter. Morrison’s illustrations are crisp if a bit on the stiff side, and they include many details not mentioned in the text, such as a family of bears on a honey raid fleeing angry guard bees and a whole host of insects, amphibians, and other fauna that inhabit this bucolic environment. The beekeeper is assisted by an African-American child, who shares a picnic with her Caucasian friend, who provides the berries. Copious backmatter provides further information on pollination, honeybees and other beneficial insects, and flowers and seed spreaders, as well as activities and Web resources.
A neat look at connections many children can see in action . (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58469-533-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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