A charming, cozy read-aloud with lots of visual interest.
A clueless little dodo stumbles into several adventures.
Dodo is excited to be with his mother on a special walk with a surprise destination, and he is ready for anything. He sings as he goes, waking some baby birds. The funny-shaped rocks he collects include an egg that breaks and a turtle, shell and all. He is friend to all until he encounters a skunk who is definitely not interested. He scares himself when he mistakes a totally different bird for his mama. Finally, his mother shows him a place that overlooks a wide-open expanse filled with color and beauty. On the long walk home, Dodo is happy but exhausted, and he finds comfort and reassurance as he sleeps cradled in mother’s soft feathers. Dodo is sweet and clumsy, filled with good intentions and wide-eyed innocence in his best of all possible worlds. Sattler employs the sparest of text and repeats the title phrase, “Uh-Oh, Dodo,” after every misadventure. Acrylic-and–colored-pencil illustrations depict a bright, lush landscape filled with exotic flora and fauna. Grasshopper is a lovely surprise character, a very loyal friend and companion who accompanies and helps Dodo at every step of the journey but is never mentioned in the text.
A charming, cozy read-aloud with lots of visual interest. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59078-929-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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