Mordant the Mole wishes for a friend and gets one in this greeting-card-pretty picture book. Mordant sees a cloud in the sky that looks like a turtle, and wishes the turtle were real, and his friend. While he is wishing, he blows on a white dandelion and scatters its seeds, which causes a bike rider to think of snow, and then, snow cones. Cause and effect all but take over, as the drips from the snow cone remind a bird to visit its aunt, a barber takes liberty with a haircut, etc. The chain reaction isn't perfect, but does lead to a turtle's crossing a road in time to meet Mordant. In Coursen's first book, the gouache colors are light and airy; some of the visual perspectives are intriguing, e.g., a rose from the beetle's point of view. The illustrations are the highlight of the book: There's a good idea behind all the activity, but it's not as tightly timed as David Macaulay's Shortcut (1995), nor does it fully engage readers, emotionally, to carry them over the bumps in the plot. Those old enough to know the meaning of Mordant's name may wonder if his wish for a friend is, after all, mere sarcasm. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8050-4374-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 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
BOOK REVIEW
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