Not a reliable guide to pet care (or, for that matter, friendship)—but a typically buzzy series outing nonetheless.
It looks like curtainzzz for Fly Guy and Fly Girl when their pet humans’ new friend comes with a lizard.
New arrival Carlos’ small green pet, Annie, seems harmless enough—cute, even—but “LIZ-Z-ZARD!” and “EATZ FLYZZ!” explain terrified Fly Guy and Fly Girl to readers who might not be in the know. It seems that Carlos isn’t in the know either, as he explains to Buzz and Liz that their buzzy companions aren’t in danger because he feeds Annie on maggots. Uh oh. Even as horrified Buzz and Liz fill Carlos in on what maggots are, a brisk chase is underway elsewhere with slapstick worthy of Looney Tunes. The flies put up a stout defense against their pursuer, zipping out of her way and lifting her by the tail from a branch before letting her fall with a comical splat. They have a final face-off in a can full of rotting garbage. Happily, Annie turns out to be fonder of soggy fries than flies, and by the end prey and predator have become “friendzzies!” In the cartoon illustrations Fly Girl is pink and has a bow fastened to one antenna, but Annie shows no such gendered markers, and all three children have the same slightly toned light skin.
Not a reliable guide to pet care (or, for that matter, friendship)—but a typically buzzy series outing nonetheless. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-54925-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 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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