Ably demonstrates to young readers the value of doing a difficult but important job.
When Tanna’s father brings a lone baby owl to their home, Tanna discovers how much work it is to care for it.
One summer, Father returns from a hunting trip with an abandoned baby owl that needs care. Even though “it’s somehow cute,” Tanna is not impressed, particularly when she has to get up before dawn to catch lemmings for the owl to eat. Inside the house Tanna also has to line the floor with newspapers because Ukpik, as she names the owl, poops often. As time goes by, Ukpik demands more and more food, and Tanna and her siblings grow tired of catching lemmings as it grows and loses its cuteness. When summer ends, Tanna has to go away to school, and although she worries about the unfledged owlet, she is “happy not to get up at 4:00 a.m.” When she returns home the following summer, Tanna is in for a big surprise. The heartwarming text is based on Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley’s (Inuit-Cree) own childhood experiences, according to an opening note, including a stint in residential schools that is mentioned only glancingly in the story. (Sean Qitsuallik-Tinsley is of Scottish-Mohawk descent.) The backmatter gives readers more information about the authors and includes Inuktitut pronunciation guidance. Kang’s use of a soft, muted palette pairs well with the text to make the story come alive for readers.
Ably demonstrates to young readers the value of doing a difficult but important job. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77227-250-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 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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