Readers will agree that being a pet isn’t a bad life, as long as you have a good pet keeper.
A boy and his pet fly, Fly Guy, learn that being a friend has lots of similarities to being a pet.
Arnold, who has a knack for coaxing the best and the most unusual slant on friendship, brings back his old pal Fly Guy, the fly with really big eyes (even for a fly). Fly Guy and his chum, Buzz (“Fly Guy was the smartest pet in the whole world. He could say the boy’s name—‘BUZZ!’ ”—now that’s one smart fly), decide to go to the park one day. At the park, they have a picnic (Buzz has a wicker basket; Fly Guy prefers the smorgasbord in the park trash can); they play around, look at the clouds, watch the other kids and their pets. Fly Guy gets a little blue. He hasn’t got a pet of his own, so they go searching for one: cats and dogs (too big), frogs (maybe not), worms (slimy). Then a very little light bulb goes off in Fly Guy’s very little brain: Buzz! Buzz can be Fly Guy’s pet. Buzz is game, and if being someone’s pet sounds a bit sketchy, think of it: Pets need companionship (well, maybe not cats), care, respect, dignity and entertainment. Or just call it a friend. Arnold’s “Garfield”-like artwork is snappy, emotive and as colorful as a new car.
Readers will agree that being a pet isn’t a bad life, as long as you have a good pet keeper. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-31615-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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