Though the ending is too feel-good, the message that hard work pays off is clear; here’s hoping readers understand its...
A young boy obsessed with sharks becomes one in this tale about hard work and perseverance.
Nate’s bedroom is decorated with sharks; he reads books about them, watches TV shows about them, and spouts shark facts. His behavior can also be somewhat sharklike. But as his older brother, Alex, points out, “I’m the only real Shark in this family.” From the poster, photo, trophies, and uniform and duffel in Alex’s room, it’s clear that he’s talking about a swim team, and Nate can’t swim. But he has a plan to learn, and readers follow along with his swim lessons for a week as he learns the basics. Following Nate’s initial forays into the pool, Cattie and Luebbe skip the details and the hard work of Nate “practicing his tail off for weeks” and fast-forward to his first attempt to swim by himself. Of course he’s successful, and three full-page illustrations show his growing confidence and ability. And then there’s tryouts for the Sharks. Improbably, as the crowd cheers his titular nickname, he blows past Alex and becomes an official Shark. Nate’s tale is followed by a double-page spread of shark facts. Duncan’s characters are expressive in his scribbly illustrations. Nate and his family present white; the swim team is diverse.
Though the ending is too feel-good, the message that hard work pays off is clear; here’s hoping readers understand its limits as well. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0496-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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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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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