Snore.
A mouse in his house—which is also Sleeping Beauty’s castle—attempts to get a full night’s sleep before his wedding but is stymied by the great wracking snores of the princess herself.
Mouse eagerly lets a prince named Max in, but the prince does not fancy kissing a snoring Beauty. Together, man and mouse hold her nose, pour water on her and tickle her feet to no avail. In desperation, Mouse puckers up and kisses her himself, and she wakes in time to get a kiss from Max. All this is illustrated in splashy watercolors that integrate a wide array of onomatopoeia to represent snoring (“SNOOOOGA-SNOOOOOM,” “KA-RENCHHHHH”); human and mouse physiognomies both sport very long noses. Mouse’s (and Max’s) eventual success is short-lived: Mouse discovers after their double wedding that he has not escaped the sounds of snoring after all. What is clearly intended to be silly is, alas, not light enough to make the grade. Max is not interested in anything but Beauty’s crown and castle, Mouse is revolted by kissing a human, and the treatment of Beauty while she is sleeping borders on the cruel if not unusual. It’s all presented in rhyme (ABCCB) in a typeface that is pretty but not as easily read as it might be.
Snore. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-087403-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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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