A worthwhile, heartwarming, and beautifully conveyed lesson to do what makes you happiest.
In this Australian import, a free-thinking penguin struggles to find an appreciative audience for his ideas.
One day, Frank wears a scarlet red hat, an accessory that stands out in his mostly black-and-white habitat. When he finally convinces fellow penguin Neville to try out the hat, Neville’s eaten by a killer whale (an act mostly depicted off the page). Understandably, the other penguins refuse to don chapeaux of their own, no matter how many different designs Frank tries. Just when Frank is about to give up for good, he finds excited recipients among the seals and decides that he won’t “let a few nervous penguins” prevent him from pursuing his passion. Frank and the penguins are darling in their own cartoonish way, with tiny triangle beaks set between their big eyes and eyebrows that extend above their faces. The starkness of the landscape serves as the perfect canvas for the bright pops of color in Frank’s various creations. All little ones should hear—and see—this message of discovering the right audience for one’s work rather than changing one’s output to please others. Frank serves as a bold example.
A worthwhile, heartwarming, and beautifully conveyed lesson to do what makes you happiest. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781761600661
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
