Who tracked the muddy footprints all through the house from the yard clear to the bathroom? Page by page, lifting flaps reveal everyone who didn’t do it, from the puppy in the doghouse to the horse outside the window to the mice under the stairs. Each scene occupies a good two-thirds of the spread, generous white space acting as focus for the action as the gloppy prints lead into and out of the soft-bleed setting, as well as backdrop for the one simple statement, printed in a large, black typeface, per opening: “Someone has made muddy footprints in the kitchen” (or up the stairs, or in Rabbit’s room, etc.). Given that readers have already seen Parsnip happily walking through the mud on the title page, the final reveal of the bathing lamb will surprise only the very young. But that’s who this is for: Toddlers will enjoy identifying the various animals under the flaps and chiming in with each subsequent “Not me!” And the cause-and-effect complexity of the tale is developmentally just right. (Novelty/picture book. 1-3)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-935021-10-0
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Mathew Price
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2008
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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