From Spain via Québec, an amusing, intriguing, enticing visual whodunit.
The mysterious disappearance of hens threatens Chickentown’s annual Golden Feather competition.
Hens are treated like “beloved members of every family” in Chickentown, where each year one hen is honored with the coveted Best Hen of the Year award. Several days before the competition, Mrs. Sillyfeather’s hen, Scarlett, vanishes, mysterious footprints in her bedroom the only clue. Then the Fairbeak hen, Gwendolyn, disappears, her wing chair raked by claws. Next Rufina Cluckaday goes missing, clumps of reddish fur left behind, followed the next night by Clarabelle Spatchcock after a strange shadow appears in her bedroom. Chickentown’s “resident witch,” Miss Henrietta, devises a plan to trap the culprit. After Miss Henrietta feeds her own hen, Lucinda, a luminous magic star, the bird shines “with the glow of a thousand lights.” Waiting until a fox shockingly appears and absconds with brave Lucinda, Miss Henrietta follows the trail of light her hen emits. Miss Henrietta finds the four missing hens unharmed—but no fox in sight. While the text neglects to explain what has really happened, a close study of the clue-laden illustrations reveals the strange, unexpected answer to the Chickentown mystery. Rendered in precise outlines, fascinating patterns, and explosive color washes, the detailed, eccentric illustrations definitely are worth discerning examination. Not only do they offer clues to the cunning culprit’s identity and motive, but they also delight with sly humor, memorable hens, and a fabulous witch (who presents White and has a head of bushy red hair).
From Spain via Québec, an amusing, intriguing, enticing visual whodunit. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-2-89802-274-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: CrackBoom! Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 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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