Although they don't have quite the sophistication of Elephant and Piggie, these three friends should find a place on the...
A simple chapter book/graphic novel to engage the youngest new readers.
In three unrelated stories, Yoon introduces a clueless big white duck, a helpful little yellow duckling, and their purple porcupine friend. These three won't replace Frog and Toad, but they have some of the innocence of the beloved amphibians. Each story, conveyed almost entirely in dialogue bubbles and sound effects, uses fewer than 70 different words and stands alone, though there is some overlap in the word choices, allowing beginning readers to recognize words they had to sound out in earlier chapters. Yoon does not rely on the standard conventions of beginning readers—there are no rhyming words or word families that can be memorized, nor is there a word list. Instead, the visual clues help readers predict what is about to happen. Menacing clouds that only Little Duck seems to see portend the outcome of the perfect picnic; Little Duck works mightily to remind Big Duck of Porcupine's birthday. Occasionally, the visuals are confusing—as when Little Duck is shown larger than Big Duck. Some of the humor seems to be addressed to adult readers, as when Porcupine asks if No. 99 on Big Duck’s list of camping essentials is the kitchen sink.
Although they don't have quite the sophistication of Elephant and Piggie, these three friends should find a place on the shelf with Yoon's earlier reading buddy, Penguin. (Graphic early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: May 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61963-723-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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 light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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