A sweet, comical choice for readers transitioning to chapter books.
A quirky pairing of a dragon and a tabby cat makes for some amusing adventures, told in three vignettes.
It all starts when a gray feline simply named Kitty is driven out from the barn where she lives by the unrelenting noise from her farm buddies. She journeys through a downtown lined with magical shops and traverses a forest and hills before scaling a tall mountain. Along the way, various fairies, frogs, and colorful furry giants call out warnings of a “silent dragon” that lives at the top of the mount. Once she summits the peak, an exhausted Kitty finds a warm cave and a friendly red dragon who readily accepts her companionship. In the second chapter, Kitty has come down with a cold, so Dragon springs into action. After some research, he makes a blanket, noodle soup, and some tea, all shown in a series of charming scenes as he nurses Kitty back to health. For the finale, Kitty is frustrated by the messy tendencies of Dragon. Desperate, she buys a “tidying-up” potion from the magic shop downtown. The silly results force Kitty to weigh what she really values. Spare, declarative text effectively narrates while Reid supplies lively backdrops that frequently span double-page spreads and incredibly cute characters; Dragon is nonverbal but still plenty expressive. With just a few short sentences per page, this fits neatly between high-level early readers and more-complex chapter books.
A sweet, comical choice for readers transitioning to chapter books. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5248-6100-1
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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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