Not much to chew on here.
Magical travel, doggy style.
When Sparky, a yappy mutt, unearths a magic bone, he is transported to Buckingham Palace. There, he quickly befriends a bossy corgi who helps him navigate the new terrain. Though the story is told in Sparky’s ingenuous first-canine voice, it’s clear that Sparky is a less-than-obedient dog. Young readers will revel in his naughtiness, especially when he upbraids his appendages for causing all his troubles. Eventually, he is captured and sent to the pound and escapes again, this time with new dog pal Watson, a forlorn little mongrel. Together, they find the bone again and test out the magic. The dog’s point of view wears thin in spots, especially when Sparky sinks into potty talk: “tooting” when eating beans and sniffing a human’s behind. Calculated to capture the Captain Underpants crowd, these diversions interfere with the dog voice and detract from the true humor of the story. The constant reference to humans as “two-legs” when Sparky seems to have a good command of other vocabulary seems forced, as well. Black-and-white illustrations grace most spreads and add smiles and energy. Emerging readers, especially dog lovers, will find this light fare easy to read but not particularly meaty.
Not much to chew on here. (London facts) (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: May 16, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-448-46399-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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