With remarkably appealing spiders showing energy and emotion on every page, this clever, well-paced story is sure to appeal...
A gigantic spider saves their itsy-bitsy friends in this hilarious twist on an old fingerplay.
Cute, fuzzy, pastel spiders Itsy-Bitsy, Mitsy-Bitsy, Litsy-Plitsy, and Witsy-Ditsy all climb up the waterspout. “I could climb up the waterspout if I wanted to!” insists the Hugely-Wugely Spider, “Which I don’t!” Then they try to squeeze in (no easy task—they are huge, after all) only to rebuffed by the tiny spiders, who put up a sign saying “You must be at least this itsy-bitsy to climb up the waterspout.” But as millions of children and adults know, “down comes the rain,” threatening to “wash the spiders out.” In the spirit of Rudolph and Tacky the Penguin, the Hugely-Wugely Spider plugs up the waterspout with their ample body, enduring the rain and accumulated muck from the gutters, until the sun comes out “and dried up all the rain” (“No! I dried up all the rain! The sun didn’t do anything,” argues the Hugely-Wugely Spider. “It’s true,” agrees the sun). The story concludes with an updated version of the famous song crediting the heroism of the Hugely-Wugely Spider, who is rewarded with “heaps and heaps of adorable leg warmers to keep all of my adorable legs perfectly warm!” Edwards’ scratchy, cartoon illustrations take the premise and ably amp up the humor.
With remarkably appealing spiders showing energy and emotion on every page, this clever, well-paced story is sure to appeal to children with a taste for zany, self-referential humor . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-30616-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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