More fun with a lovable, literate canine; sure to inspire budding animal rescue advocates.
Arfy—a big-eyed dog with a heart to match—uses his letter-writing skills to find a home for a stray kitten.
This sequel to the New York Times bestseller Can I Be Your Dog? (2018) begins with an entry from Arfy’s diary in his easily readable handwriting. Arfy explains how his usual Tuesday pursuits—digging up a stick and barking at a bird—were interrupted by a new smell. He followed his nose and found an adorable, piteous kitten whom he named Scamper. Arfy reveals that he cannot keep the homeless feline because “my person is allergic to cats.” So, he tests out various owners for Scamper—a music teacher, a set of triplet babies, an auto mechanic, a glamorous movie agent, and a tchotchke-collecting cat fancier. He writes letters to each candidate explaining why Scamper would be a good fit for them. But each time, the arrangement doesn’t work and the prospective adopters send Scamper back along with apologetic letters explaining why various aspects of the kitten’s behavior don’t pass muster. Just when all hope seems lost, Scamper chalks a message on the pavement that helps Arfy find his new friend a perfect home, one where he can be himself. The letters and diary entries appear as facsimiles accompanied by amusing, colorful cartoony art. Much of the humor stems from the fact that the animals’ earnest and formal correspondence is full of fun wordplay. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More fun with a lovable, literate canine; sure to inspire budding animal rescue advocates. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-38007-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dragonfly Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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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