A lovely choice to help emergent readers get into the Christmas spirit.
Poppleton the pig celebrates the season in three delightful stories.
Each tale presents the charming porcine at his most conscientious, gracious self. In “The Jar,” good-natured Poppleton considers his BFFs’ preferences and needs above all when making his gift choices. When his money runs out before he can purchase the just-right item he wants for llama pal Cherry Sue, the store’s manager comes up with an ingenious solution. In “Snow,” Poppleton wishes for a white Christmas, but the weather isn’t cooperating, so he takes matters into his own trotters with the aid of dozens of artificial-snow-filled aerosol cans. When he’s done, the whole neighborhood “looks like Christmas.” In “Midnight,” Poppleton and buddies Cherry Sue, Fillmore the goat, and Hudson the mouse celebrate a festive Christmas Eve with cider and cookies, sparkling candles and tree lights, secret Christmas wishes, and, before going home to bed, a walk to wish “a good Christmas to the animals of the night: the owls, the deer, and the raccoons.” This sweet easy chapter book overflows with warmth and coziness and exudes the true spirit of the holiday season: friendship, thoughtfulness, and kindness. The cheery, colorful illustrations and endearing, expressive animal protagonists are well suited to the text. Backmatter bonuses include a guide to drawing Poppleton and a prompt for creating an illustrated story.
A lovely choice to help emergent readers get into the Christmas spirit. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-56677-2
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Acorn/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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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A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.
Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.
Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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