Fans will be in sheep-y stitches.
It’s sheep vs. chicken in a farmyard talent showdown!
Film studio Aardman’s Shaun the sheep and the other denizens of the barnyard at Mossy Bottom Farm are having a normal day…well a normal-for-them day: Bitzer the sheepdog is listening to his headphones, and Timmy the lamb is flying a kite made of underwear (with disastrous results). The Farmer suddenly gets excited about something he’s read in the newspaper, a Mossy Bottom’s Got Talent competition. He straight away starts practicing his balloon animals; unfortunately, they all look deformed. Shaun and company decide to have their own talent show, which becomes a sheep-vs.-chicken throwdown when the chickens laugh quite cruelly at Shirley the sheep’s dance-act practice. Things look dismal for the sheep in the competition until Shaun hears Shirley singing…but after her embarrassment in front of the chickens, can he convince her to sing in front of the whole farm? The characters from the television show (and upcoming movie) Shaun the Sheep induce smiles in this first in a tie-in series. Much like the stop-motion shows, there is no dialogue to speak of; all is narration and description. The sight gags Aardman projects are famous for work surprisingly well in this mostly text/comics hybrid tale.
Fans will be in sheep-y stitches. (final art and activities not seen) (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7535-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.
Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.
Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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