Keeping the rhythm and rhyme of the familiar song, Hoberman (The Looking Book, below, etc.) updates and extends its ending. When his goat eats his newly laundered shirts, Bill Grogan punishes him by tying him to the railroad track. The clever goat manages to cough up the shirts just in time to flag the train. And there begins his newest adventure. The engineer invites him to come along for a ride, but he offends one animal passenger after another as he sits on them, mistaking them for furniture. He gives away his red shirts to make amends, but at lunchtime, the pig, sheep, and cow have such terrible manners that not only does the goat not get anything to eat, but the shirts become a filthy mess. When the engineer demands they clean up, the three dutifully comply. In a familiar ending, those red shirts drying on the line are just too much temptation for the goat. The pastel illustrations will have readers smiling at the accident-prone goat. The opening scene really sets the stage, with Bill Grogan hanging wash while the goat lounges in a lawn chair. Around them are the trappings typical of hillbilly yards: an old wringer washer outside, a clothes line with red long johns flapping in the breeze, hubcaps as stepping stones leading to a dilapidated house, and a tree growing out of an old rubber tire. Westcott’s (She Did It, p. 104, etc.) characters are full of life, and their emotions are plain from their facial expressions and gestures. A humorous continuation of a childhood favorite . . . and a tune that readers will be hard-pressed to get out of their heads. (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-316-36232-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Turkey’s in the “kind of trouble where it’s almost Thanksgiving...and you’re the main course.” Accordingly, Turkey tries on disguise after disguise, from horse to cow to pig to sheep, at each iteration being told that he looks nothing like the animal he’s trying to mimic (which is quite true, as Harper’s quirky watercolors make crystal clear). He desperately squeezes a red rubber glove onto his head to pass as a rooster, only to overhear the farmer suggest a poultry plan B when he’s unable to turn up the turkey. Turkey’s horrified expression as he stands among the peppers and tomatoes—in November? Chalk it up to artistic license—is priceless, but his surroundings give him an idea. Good fun, but it may lead to a vegetarian table or two. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5529-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2009
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