In this amusing variation on the traditional tortoise and the hare tale, Turkey tries on Turtle’s shell after accidentally cracking and then repairing it. Then, “ ‘Here comes Rabbit,’ said the Little Bitty Five. / ‘Rabbit wants to race, and he won’t be denied.’ ” Turkey, hidden in Turtle’s shell, accepts the challenge of the bullying Rabbit, who is mean-looking and larger-than-life. The look on Rabbit’s face when Turkey pushes out his long neck, then his long skinny legs, and finally his wings, is not to be missed. Turkey circles the lake before Rabbit even gets started, and puts Rabbit to shame. The story concludes, “Rabbit never challenged Turtle again. That’s why you never see them racing today.” The bold and colorful illustrations are a good match for this lively telling that, with Rabbit’s breezy rap-like dialogue, is a joy to read aloud. Based on a traditional Choctaw story, this telling wins the race. Includes notes on sources. (Picture book/folktale. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-87483-777-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Folk/August House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2007
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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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