A sweetly loopy look at domestic travails filtered through a wickedly subversive lens.
Bringing home the bacon (or, in this case, the fish) is not as simple as it may seem.
The title of this wordless continuation of The Chicken Thief (2010) is something of a misnomer, as Hen spends much of this eventful day apart from Fox. The connubial bliss of Hen and Fox is marred by an empty refrigerator, so Hen kisses her egg goodbye and leaves it in the care of Fox while she and friend Crab head out for a day of fishing. She lands a big one in short order, but an equally short order it is snaggled by a giant bird that flies off with fish, Hen (clinging to the rod) and Crab (clinging to Hen's tail feathers). Comical misadventures ensue, all laid out in super-wide-screen format with Rodriguez’s characteristic fine line and sense of absurdity. This story does not present the same emotional nuance of its predecessor, but children will get plenty of giggles watching Hen and Crab fend off giant, ravenous hatchlings and battle a sea serpent. The complexity comes when Hen opens the door to see a cracked egg shell and a skillet on the table; about to bop Fox with said skillet, she holds herself back when she sees him cuddling an adorable fox-hen baby.
A sweetly loopy look at domestic travails filtered through a wickedly subversive lens. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59270-109-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)
The town of Sunnyview got a little bit safer when 8-year-old Eugene McGillicudy moved in.
Just like his comic-book mentor, Super Dude, Eugene, aka Captain Awesome, is on a one-man mission is to save the world from supervillains, like the nefarious “Queen Stinkypants from Planet Baby.” Just as Eugene suspected, plenty of new supervillains await him at Sunnyview Elementary. Are Meredith Mooney and the mind-reading Ms. Beasley secretly working together to try and force Eugene to reveal his secret identity? Will Principal Brick Foot succeed in throwing Captain Awesome into the “Dungeon of Detention?” Fortunately, Eugene isn’t forced to go it alone. Charlie Thomas Jones, fellow comic-book lover and Super Dude fan, stands ready and willing to help. When the class hamster goes missing, Captain Awesome must don his cape and, with the help of his new best friend, ride to the rescue. Kirby’s funny and engaging third-person narration and O’Connor’s hilarious illustrations make the book easily accessible and enormously appealing, particularly to readers who have recently graduated to chapter books. But it is the quirky, mischievous Eugene that really makes this book special. His energy and humor are contagious, and his dogged commitment to his superhero alter ego is enough to make anyone a believer.
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4090-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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