A sweet intro for would-be campers.
Mouse, Squirrel, Fox, and Rabbit gather to explore and expand their skills.
Teacher Owl has the four constructing a fort of downed branches, twigs, leaves, and rope. Of course, while the students are gathering things, their senses are alert to what they might see, hear, and smell. But Forest School isn’t just for learning skills; it’s also about interpersonal relationships and personal growth. Mouse struggles with the day’s activities, too small to help. Without missing a beat, students and teacher shift to helping Mouse with a new project: making a nest on the ground with leaves. Afterward, they all enjoy the fort and a story from Owl. Hot chocolate around a campfire rounds out the day. Along the way, the book offers lessons on identifying tree leaves, ground nests, and two types of knots and about making bug hotels. Though Owl stops Squirrel from breaking leaves off a tree, why this is taboo is never explained. The final spread offers instructions on making indoor forts and exploring nature. The digital illustrations are cute, and readers will enjoy searching them for tiny forest creatures. Limited warnings focus on fire safety and not exploring the outdoors without an adult; there are no warnings about wildlife, poisonous plants, or mushrooms. The story feels somewhat purposeful, though little ones eager to learn more about nature will enjoy it.
A sweet intro for would-be campers. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781536238709
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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