by Tony Mitton and illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2009
Mitton’s modest, if mildly agreeable, contribution to the barnyard-hoedown genre opens with a bad case of malaise on Farmer Joe’s spread. But readers will know something’s cooking, even before Farmer Joe breaks out his guitar, because Parker-Rees’s palette comprises the same colors associated with the stuff that gets piped onto birthday cakes, and the barnyard animals, who strike poses of sophisticated ennui, clearly know a good time when it bites them on the knee. Out come the instruments in cumulative fashion, each inspired by the one before, and the farm gets back in operation, for music shows the way to happiness and contentment. The basic rhythm has swing—“The crops like the music. Me-oh-my! / Look at them stretching up to the sky”—and plenty of onomatopoeic oomph—“Doom-doom-doo”—though readers may wince at such clunky rhymes as “idea / cheer” and “yee-har / guitar.” Ultimately the book falls short of the panache of other barnyard merriments, such as Martin Waddell’s The Pig in the Pond, illustrated by Jill Barton (1992). (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 15, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-545-12493-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
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by Sam McBratney ; illustrated by Anita Jeram ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2020
Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back.
Little Nutbrown Hare ventures out into the wide world and comes back with a new companion in this sequel to Guess How Much I Love You (1994).
Big Nutbrown Hare is too busy, so after asking permission, Little Nutbrown Hare scampers off over the rolling meadow to play by himself. After discovering that neither his shadow nor his reflection make satisfactory playmates (“You’re only another me!”), Little Nutbrown comes to Cloudy Mountain…and meets “Someone real!” It’s a white bunny who introduces herself as Tipps. But a wonderful round of digging and building and chasing about reaches an unexpected end with a game of hide-and-seek, because both hares hide! After waiting a long time to be found, Little Nutbrown Hare hops on home in disappointment, wondering whether he’ll ever see Tipps again. As it turns out, it doesn’t take long to find out, since she has followed him. “Now, where on earth did she come from?” wonders Big Nutbrown. “Her name is Tipps,” Little Nutbrown proudly replies, “and she’s my friend.” Jeram’s spacious, pale-toned, naturalistic outdoor scenes create a properly idyllic setting for this cozy development in a tender child-caregiver relationship—which hasn’t lost a bit of its appealing intimacy in the more than 25 years since its first appearance. As in the first, Big Nutbrown Hare is ungendered, facilitating pleasingly flexible readings.
Readers are likely to love it to the moon and back. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1747-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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by Terry Pierce & illustrated by Todd Bonita ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 2006
A brother and sister participate in their Tae Kwon Do class in a most welcome addition to the Step into Reading series. This level-one title sports predominantly one-syllable, short vowel words in two-to-four-word sentences. Spirited images and mainly well-chosen action words in rhyme will hook little boys: “We count. We yell. We all kick well.” But the multicultural, coed students portrayed here, and the apparent accuracy of belt colors and class content, widen the applications. Bonita’s illustrations depict cheerful, cartoonish kids with shiny button noses, impossibly pudgy feet and thighs like enrobed sausages, but the sparring, jabbing and block-busting yield a sure hit. Parents, teachers and librarians desperate for first-level, child-appealing readers will cheer out loud—and quite possibly execute a few joyous spinning kicks of their own—as they snap this one up. (Easy reader. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 25, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83448-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2006
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by Terry Pierce ; illustrated by Nadja Sarell
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