An earnest but perplexing tale about ecological preservation.
An unusual circus comes to town.
Colorful bird feathers bearing tickets to the Flying Circus rain down on a village. A flock of birds descends from the sky with a striped circus tent. The townsfolk hand in their tickets and enter. After the lemur ringmaster tells a magical story, a series of images take shape. A swarm of buzzing bees appears, then turns into a waterfall. A forest grows; birds, animals, and fireflies emerge. The tent fills with water and sea creatures. A unicycle-riding, juggling bear dazzles the crowd. A whale leaps through the air; a tiger and other endangered or extinct creatures and plants materialize. Readers learn that the Flying Circus is actually “nature’s messenger asking for help on behalf of the trees, the animals, and every life form.” Departing audience members receive a “precious gift: a seed to plant in the hopes of transforming their wounded world.” The birds that delivered the tent prepare to carry it elsewhere and will leave seeds there, too, to remind successive audiences to cherish the earth. This odd, overlong story, originally published in Belgium and the Netherlands and translated from Dutch, offers a warning about protecting the planet—a laudable message. Unfortunately, the confusing, bizarre imagery and plodding text don’t convey that vital takeaway effectively; the connection between the circus acts and the conclusion feels unclear. Still, the lush illustrations have some appeal. Human characters are mostly light-skinned.
An earnest but perplexing tale about ecological preservation. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9798890630803
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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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