A bland episode, though likely to leave more-reflective readers wondering when the puppies will be coming along.
New neighbors Ruby and Billy make friends fairly easily, but their dogs suffer the pangs of love in this cozy import.
Ruby’s stated dislike of boys doesn’t keep her from meeting with Billy over the fence about the strange behavior of their respective dogs, Grub and Tilly. Droopy Grub whines and just stares at his food. “Grub’s in love,” says Ruby’s mom. “He’s pining.” Likewise Tilly, who will only touch “cheese and crusty bread” according to Billy (“I think Tilly might be French,” comments Ruby parochially). A picnic provides the perfect solution: the two dogs gleefully chase each other out of sight—their trail taking the shape of a heart over the park’s green expanse—and by the time they’re back in view “Grub’s tail was wagging the most I’ve ever seen.” Ahem. Next morning Grub eats his food, digs happily in the garden, and at Ruby’s offer of another picnic, jumps on her for “the BIGGEST, messiest hug ever!” A few instances of doggy gloom aside, both the human figures and the spaniel-eared canine ones bear wispy smiles in Warburton’s vivacious watercolor scenes.
A bland episode, though likely to leave more-reflective readers wondering when the puppies will be coming along. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0134-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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