Next book

THE QUAYSIDE CAT

Gorgeous illustrations combine with the poetic language of the narrative to create a winsome journey.

A wharf cat gets a taste of life at sea.

Jim meets up with Old Tregarn at the harbor, raptly listening to his yarns about life as a ship’s cat. Hearing them, Jim insists he wants to go to sea too, so both cats sneak aboard a vessel that sails on the night tide. Once aboard, Jim learns that the maritime life takes some getting used to. Facing down rats in the hold, experiencing seasickness and bad weather, and climbing to the top of the mast are all part of Jim’s new life. Forward’s lyrical language flows off the tongue—“When the sea sucks back from the harbor wall and the sunlight strokes the cobbled streets”—and is rich in its evocation of the roll and swell of the ocean’s rhythm. Minimal dialogue attribution initially may cause readers some confusion about which cat is speaking, and these sections may have to be read twice. How much time has passed is also not completely clear, since the narrative reads, “The storms come…” followed on the page turn by, “After the storm…” leaving readers to wonder whether one event or many over a longer time period is indicated. Brown’s consummate paintings burst with sensory detail—the water sloshes, the lines fray, the wind whistles.

Gorgeous illustrations combine with the poetic language of the narrative to create a winsome journey. (Picture Book. 3-7)

Pub Date: April 1, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4677-3452-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Andersen Press USA

Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014

Next book

CARPENTER'S HELPER

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

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 75


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • IndieBound Bestseller

Next book

THE WONKY DONKEY

Hee haw.

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 75


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • IndieBound Bestseller

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

Categories:
Close Quickview