A book with lively rhyming text and humorous characters, enhanced by charming, fully realized illustrations.
In Abrams’ illustrated series children’s book, a housecat and his assorted animal friends engage in games and hijinks.
“A handsome young kitty named Silly, / had fur just as white as a lily”—that is, until he rolled in mud and “ran through the house willy-nilly.” Whether he’s playing croquet with his best friend, Dainty Dog, and others, or a game of hide and seek with a green-eyed bug, fluffy Silly Cat is always up for mischief and adventure in this whimsical chapter book. Abrams—whose previous cat-centric kids’ books include Silly Cat and Friends Frolic Boldly (2021) and the Adventures of Spicy series (2015-2018)—uses rhyming text to tell short, unconnected stories of Silly Cat and his friends. In a chapter titled “The King of String!,” for instance, Silly Cat plays with a ball of string “with all the frenzy strings can bring”; in “That Jay Is Ray,” blue jay Ray relates how he improved his bedraggled appearance with a feathery toupee to impress his lady love. Dainty Dog has her moments, too, most notably when she finds herself “in a fog” as a captive audience for Cousin Truck, a polliwog and a notorious “conversation hog.” With words such as dialogue, polliwog, agog, and monologue, the author enjoyably keeps this rhyming pattern going for several pages. In Vagreti’s polished full-color illustrations, the expressions of Dainty Dog and loud-mouthed Cousin Truck are a hoot. The lavish images are a pleasure throughout, and clear, large text alternates with indoor and outdoor scenes rendered in fine-lined detail that highlights individual characteristics of each featured creature (and Silly Cat’s kind human caretaker, Grammie). “Interlude,” an ode to a brown bat named Bingo, offers a gentle departure; Bingo and friends track insects, including a comically alarmed mosquito, in a starlit sky “with / a high-pitched cry, / to feast upon the vast supply.” The cat-savvy author and illustrator dedicate the book to “all the fur babies / who have been a part of our lives. / We love you forever.”
A book with lively rhyming text and humorous characters, enhanced by charming, fully realized illustrations.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 9781628802481
Page Count: 94
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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