Arbitrary and lacking closure, this is more like a real dream than a sleepy-time tale.
Rabbits have group dreams—very peculiar ones.
At first, this animal tale appears fairly traditional: bunnies hop around a flowery field among bees and butterflies, hunkering down to eat carrots, radishes, and lettuce. “What do bunnies know?” They know to run from the farmer’s dog “even if he only wants to play,” and here things begin to feel uncanny. The enormous dog resembles the bunnies more than it does any canine, possessing tiny feet but virtually no legs, which highlights the fact that these bunnies, too, lack legs for their wee feet. They flee the friendly dog like a synchronized fleeing team, all in the same position, seeming to skim above the ground, which is solid white background. Diving into burrows, they again glide through air without touching soil. A chicken inexplicably joins them. When they sleep, their group dreams involve bees, butterflies, and a large dog—understandably—but also ABCs, 123s, and school supplies, which seem to arise from nowhere. A section about writing their names, with one bunny denying that his name is Bobby (who said it was?), is as peculiar as real dreams. McCarty shades his animals with smooth, fine lines, and their round eyes are almost electric. However, figures seem static even when moving, and the general lack of groundedness and gravity is more surreal than satisfying.
Arbitrary and lacking closure, this is more like a real dream than a sleepy-time tale. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9687-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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 stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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