Will dance its way into new readers’ hearts.
A clumsy would-be dancer seizes the spotlight.
Though the title doesn’t reveal what kinds of anthropomorphic animals the two ballerinas in this early reader are, Burch’s colorful, cartoonlike illustrations depict them as a beaver and a hippo, “one in red. One in blue.” Their subdued dancing in “fancy clothes” and on “pointy toes” is interrupted when Moose intrudes on their balletic reverie. “Me too! I want to dance too!” exclaims Moose, whose attire is all wrong and whose moves are anything but graceful. The two ballerinas aren’t cruel, but they don’t seem all that invested in helping Moose. After initially exclaiming, “This is…a MESS! Please sit down, Moose,” the omniscient narrator shifts to encouragement: “Don’t give up, Moose!” With that, Moose eschews ballet but doesn’t abandon dancing. A rejuvenated Moose busts a move, dancing “a happy, snappy dance.” In fact, the dance looks so fun that the two ballerinas can’t resist joining. Together, the trio dances “as if no one is watching.” This familiar line delivers a pleasing end to the simple story, with the big full moon gazing down on the characters in a bit of humorously ironic counterpoint between text and illustration.
Will dance its way into new readers’ hearts. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781665948821
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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