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A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

FILLED WITH FACTS AND OVER 60 CREATURES

A pleasant if somewhat misleading invitation for armchair and lap-sitting travelers.

To meet the animals who live there, a young boy travels to different habitats around the world, including his own backyard.

This appealing imaginary adventure is presented as a scrapbook written and drawn by the narrator, depicted here with short curly black hair and (inconsistently) brown skin, usually a shade darker than that of his human companions. From a European farm to the ocean and its shores, the jungle, deserts, and grasslands, woodlands, and in and around his home, the boy befriends animal inhabitants. (Opposite the title page, a note warns children to "NEVER approach or try to touch an animal in the wild unless a grown-up has said it's safe.") Following the title-page spread, an introduction by the young explorer, and the table of contents, there’s a double-page map of inhabited continents showing the locations of habitats described and some of the animals. The chapters that follow briefly introduce each habitat and animal. A few interesting facts about each of the 60 creatures are included in slightly smaller text. The voice and informational choices are entirely those of a small boy, but the watercolor-and-ink illustrations are clearly done by a talented caricaturist with a cheerful sense of humor. As is too often the case with European imports, no sources are given for the information.

A pleasant if somewhat misleading invitation for armchair and lap-sitting travelers. (index) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-84780-914-8

Page Count: 80

Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016

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ADA TWIST AND THE PERILOUS PANTS

From the Questioneers series , Vol. 2

Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.

Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.

Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.

Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)

Pub Date: April 16, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Amulet/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019

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THE WONKY DONKEY

Hee haw.

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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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