Most children will recognize the tiger as an unreliable narrator and enjoy the silliness of his assertions.
After admitting to readers that he recently bit, then swallowed whole, an apparently human explorer, a tiger insists that he’s really a great guy.
The tiger is reminiscent of Hanna-Barbera’s funny, anthropomorphic felines. At the beginning, a double-page spread of lush, colorful jungle flora—and a few small fauna—backgrounds the tiger, whose relaxed form is draped over a tree limb as he dozes. The text, and bold, white lettering, addresses readers: “Hey! Look who we’ve spotted. He’s big and stripy, with a mouth full of sharp, white teeth. Do you know who he is?” After affirming readers’ indisputable guess, the text continues, mentioning that the tiger is still asleep but will soon awaken. After this, most of the text is Tiger’s monologue to the readers. The important exception is a double-page series of vignettes that posit readers’ assertions about real tiger behavior (“He’ll sneak up on you!”). The tiger tries to dispute these, until he admits to the devoured-explorer accusation. His ridiculous insistence that he eats his prey “with love” sets up the next pages, in which hilarious artwork shows him, among other things, preparing fruit salad for a baby elephant, styling hair for baboons, and designing a Coliseum-like anthill for some local pismires.
Most children will recognize the tiger as an unreliable narrator and enjoy the silliness of his assertions. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68297-154-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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
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
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