An ecological cautionary tale that perhaps errs a little too much on the side of caution
A school of alewives migrates from the ocean to an inland lake to spawn.
Led by Pesca, the river herrings head north, swimming in parallel with the Canada geese. They pass a pod of porpoises and a humpback whale before turning toward the coast. They are spotted by a boy out in a rowboat with his father, who tells his son about the old alewife fishery, now moribund due to plummeting numbers. Once in a stream, Pesca and her school evade an eagle and a heron, and they navigate a beaver dam before pulling up short where a road has been constructed over the stream; the culvert through which the stream now flows is too high for the fish to reach. Happily, the boy and his father spot them and are able to use buckets to lift the fish over the road and into the lake. Raye’s soft, bright paintings depict the journey, varying perspective to give readers a sense of scale and drama, as with an intense close-up of the eagle’s talons. Perhaps unintentionally, the story leaves readers with a real conundrum: Even the most optimistic are likely to feel that trusting in passersby with buckets to save a fishery bodes ill for its long-term survival. An author’s note provides background on both alewives and anadromous fish, but it offers only faint hope.
An ecological cautionary tale that perhaps errs a little too much on the side of caution . (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-88448-354-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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