An exciting tale of boy-and-puppy bonding for Inuit children, this story is also accessible to non-Inuit readers willing to...
This Canadian import recounts a winter afternoon of an Inuit boy named Jake and his sled dog puppy, Kamik.
A companion to Kamik: An Inuit Puppy Story, by Donald Uluadluak and illustrated by Leng (2013), this story is based on the recollections of Sulurayok, an Inuit elder from Nunavut. In the book, Jake and his puppy are staying with his grandmother in her house. She encourages Jake in his training of Kamik and sends the pair out onto the snowy tundra to practice with a simple sealskin sled. The fairly lengthy story describes their training session and their trip back home during a sudden blizzard. Soft-focus watercolor-and-pencil illustrations capture the antics of the dog and his young master as well as the drama of the ride through the swirling blizzard. The story places readers directly into the setting and the plot, with no concessions to non-Inuit audiences, such as a map, glossary, or pronunciation guide. A few words are not defined by context, such as bannock (a type of bread) and Inuktitut (an Inuit language), and other words are difficult for non-native speakers to pronounce without guidance, such as the grandmother’s name, Anaanatsiaq, and Tuhaaji, the dog’s Inuktitut name.
An exciting tale of boy-and-puppy bonding for Inuit children, this story is also accessible to non-Inuit readers willing to meet Kamik and Jake out on the tundra. (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-7722-7020-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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