Most especially, enthusiastic kids will appreciate the message that there is a time and a place for everything—they needn’t...
Clark’s enthusiasm for school, while admirable, is a little too much for his classmates.
On its own, Clark’s zeal wouldn’t be so bad, but he is the largest and strongest student at his school, so his actions are more than a little intimidating to his smaller friends. He goes too fast during games of spinna-ma-jig, eats other kids’ lunches and cannot seem to use an indoor voice. Eventually, his classmates stop playing, eating and sitting with him. His teacher, Mrs. Inkydink, helps him figure out what’s wrong, but her advice to “stay cool” doesn’t sink in—until Clark starts making rhymes to help himself remember. “Only munch your own lunch.” “Easy does it, that’s the way. Then my friends will let me play.” His plan works, and everyone appreciates the new, improved, subdued Clark—especially the large new kid, who needs some help of his own. Francis’ watercolor illustrations give Clark a rather goofy and endearing personality that is somewhat offset by the fact that he towers over his classmates. He manages to convey the emotions of the fish mainly with eye and mouth positions, and their nervousness around Clark is obvious.
Most especially, enthusiastic kids will appreciate the message that there is a time and a place for everything—they needn’t stay cool ’round the clock. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-219226-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013
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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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