A delightful display of animal antics.
A fraidy dog and a cool cat endure a thunderstorm.
As this easy-to-read graphic novel begins, both pets are napping. When two large yellow block-letter words (“RUMBLE”) appear, Dog sits up, lip quavering, wondering, “What is that?” while Cat barely opens an eye to deadpan, “Nothing.” As the storm waxes and wanes, parallel panels contrast the animals’ responses: Dog hides under a table, behind the sofa, and then under the sofa cushion, while Cat blithely pounces on and pummels a mouse toy and stuffed duck and revels in a ball of yarn. At an especially loud “BOOM,” the dog leaps, catapulting the cat from the top of the cushion for a satisfyingly dynamic moment. Dog races to the best hiding place, deep in a closet, as Cat retrieves yet another toy. In climactic frames, Dog dreams of being a superhero who combats the lightning and blows the clouds away; then Cat awakens Dog, reporting the squall’s end. Dog, gazing out at the blue sky, announces, “I made the storm go away,” though Cat is unimpressed. As in See Me Run (2011) and I See a Cat (2017), Meisel once more demonstrates a gift for conveying the everyday activities of pets. His digitally rendered pen-and-ink illustrations are artfully composed; with minimal text, he tells a story oozing humor and drama.
A delightful display of animal antics. (Graphic early reader. 4-8)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780823448579
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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BOOK REVIEW
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