Kijima’s combination of thick lines and delicate use of color is a plus, but it takes some work to prize out the themes of...
A bird chick goes missing, which offers an opportunity to discuss the potential loss of other creatures.
Polar bear Milk, the postman of the northern forest, receives a plea—in the form of a postcard—from the red-crowned cranes. They have lost their chick and are enlisting Milk’s help, as Milk sees everyone while he makes his rounds. Using heavy black outlines for his characters, Kijima works in a rich array of habitats, evoking them with slashes of color and whispering swipes of clouds. In double-page spreads that capture the different times of day, Milk meets up with the sika deer, the Siberian chipmunk, the Blakiston’s fish owl, and other denizens of the far north. Though it goes unspoken, global warming imperils all of these animals, and Milk’s repetitive plea to his friends takes on a drumbeat of impending danger for them. Meanwhile, the chick is still missing as the seasons pass. With all the naming of the creatures of the northern forest, the story has curiously pushed the poor little chick somewhat into the background even though he is brought up each page. Finally, there is a joyous reunion, though the atmosphere of missing children lays a fog over the few final pages leading to the chick’s discovery.
Kijima’s combination of thick lines and delicate use of color is a plus, but it takes some work to prize out the themes of missing children and climate change. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-940842-21-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Museyon
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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BOOK REVIEW
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