A beautifully illustrated and gratifying story of woodland-creature comradeship and determination.
Izzy, a chipmunk, braves a storm, relying on her friends’ resourcefulness to get to Bear’s house.
When Izzy receives a note from Bear asking her to come over right away, she can’t refuse. As she steps out the door, it begins to snow. As the snow gets thicker, she finds it more and more difficult to find her way. Soon, a squirrel in a sweater comes to her rescue and takes her across the treetops to get to Bear’s. When it gets too slippery, a duck in a Peruvian hat starts to fly them all there. When it gets too difficult to see, a sweater-wearing raccoon carries them all (one perched atop the other, “Musicians of Bremen” style) by leaping across the snow. After a long journey in the blizzard and assistance from this accumulation of friends, Izzy finally makes it to Bear’s house for a delightful surprise. Lies creates a charming, heartwarming story of friendship, goodwill, and perseverance. His attention to the tiniest details—seemingly each hair on the raccoon’s tail can be descried, not to mention the profusion and variety of knitwear—elevates the book above the ordinary. The landscape illustrations are exquisite. Often illustrating the intensifying blizzard on double-page spreads, he draws readers in and puts them in the middle of the storm.
A beautifully illustrated and gratifying story of woodland-creature comradeship and determination. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-94882-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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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