Delightful art can’t save this problematic exploration.
Two penguin siblings, Slipper and Flipper, have grown up idolizing their famous forebear, helmet-wearing Spanish explorer Don Pingüino, and want to emulate him.
They set off to follow in his footsteps by exploring the Western Hemisphere, from Antarctica to Mexico. Despite the fact that neither the tango nor modern soccer had been invented by the time of the Age of Exploration, the residents of Buenos Aires remember Don Pingüino giving them the “dance of love,” and the Brazilians remember him playing soccer. This Methuselah of an explorer seems to gallivant just ahead of his tuxedoed descendants throughout their journey north. When Papa finally catches up, they happily proceed to take a bus tour of the continental United States, the titular “Land of the Golden Sun” and evidently their new home. Reagan’s Photoshopped pen-and-ink line art collaged into scenic photos is eye-catching and colorful. The ice floes are particularly captivating. Readers will enjoy the many gatefolds while looking for poor frantic Papa. Unfortunately, the meandering story detracts from the truly wonderful illustrations. In fact, the storyline is so inconsequential that it could have been wholly carried by the conversation bubbles, and the premise is hugely flawed. The conquistadores and the native peoples of the Americas didn’t exactly hit it off, yet these “native” penguins don’t seem to have a problem with the fact that their “ancestor” pillaged and conquered.
Delightful art can’t save this problematic exploration. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6387-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
