An impressive work that takes a mundane journey and makes it a hilarious, melodious adventure.
A veteran children’s musician captures the epic proportions of a childhood trek to the country store in this debut sing-along picture book.
A young boy and his dog set off to the country store, a long walk from home. Soon the boy meets his friend Bob, who asks for help with his chores so that he can go along. The narrator gladly obliges. A detail-filled, two-page spread shows the chaos the boys create as they finish the farmyard tasks: a cat drinks from the milk pail; the dog chases the pigs; and the two friends ride a wheelbarrow, chasing the chickens and spilling the freshly collected eggs. But, presumably, the work gets finished, and on the next page, the boys and the dog head for the store, slowing down on the hot day, until they run into Jim, who has a bike. All three boys pile on the bike in carefree fashion, unconcerned with helmets or safety rules, picking up speed. “Everything was goin’ just fine until / We came to a great…big…hill,” the narrator says, dubiously pointing at a winding path in the illustration, while Bob urges Jim to take the long way. Jim refuses, even though it means (shown in another wordless, two-page spread) that the narrator, Bob, and the dog will have to push the bike to the top. The reward? The ride down at increasing speeds, at first joyous and then terrifying as the bike’s brakes snap, and three kids careen straight into a cow standing in the path, sailing into the air and landing—wouldn’t you know it?—at the door of the country store. There they meet two female friends (one of whom is the sole child of color in the cast). And the entertaining punch line? The narrator is the only kid with any money. In Noah’s amusing tale, the uneven rhythm of the words, sprinkled with fiddley-diddley-diddley-dees throughout, is a challenge to scan without first listening to the CD that accompanies the book. But after a reader enjoys the music, the rhythms should come naturally. And while the lyrics are clever and the refrain will likely have kids joining in, the project communicates much of the nostalgic story—and the characters’ emotions—through Noah’s glorious, wordless spreads, which should have children laughing out loud.
An impressive work that takes a mundane journey and makes it a hilarious, melodious adventure.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5173-0535-2
Page Count: 66
Publisher: Tim Noah Productions
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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