"The lack of continuous play makes the video version superfluous, but the episode will still draw snorts and chortles aplenty from young audiences. (Enhanced e-book/picture book. 6-8)"
An early work from the inveterate prankster Cole goes digital with the addition of extra reading options and a short introductory video.
Read full book review >
"Smartypants exudes a salutary self-confidence—but the baby, with his big white eyes, gleeful grin and ash-dark skin, skates close enough to caricature that American audiences, at least, may wince. (Picture book. 6-8)"
Though probably intended to be no more than a breezy lesson in domestic politics paired to a cautionary tale on the dangers of not reading labels carefully, this sequel to Princess Smartypants (1987) takes a discomfiting turn when the ultra-capable young Royal inadvertently produces a brown-skinned baby.
Read full book review >
"It's all in good fun, ends with a reassuring thought—'Sometimes love isn't easy, but there's always enough to go around'—and makes a refreshing anodyne to the gooier valentines of Joan Walsh Anglund, Charlotte Zolotow, and their legions of modern imitators. (Picture book. 5-7)"
Putting a characteristically screwy spin on the sappy "Love Is . . .
Read full book review >
"Though many books, starting with Robie H. Harris's It's Perfectly Normal (1994), cover the territory in less ghoulish fashion, here at least readers will get some basic information, plus the idea that certain rough patches on the road to adulthood are survivable. (Picture book/nonfiction. 10-14)"
A child asks her teddy bear about growing up and gets an earful in this wildly irreverent look at puberty.
Read full book review >
"Loosely drawn line-and-watercolor illustrations portray the bickering couple in hilarious detail, made all the funnier by the posh British backdrop that is their battleground. (Picture book. 6-12)"
"Pair this with Margaret Wild's Old Pig (1996) for a fairly complete definition of aging and death—one funny, one tender—aimed at the young. (Picture book. 5-7)"
Cole (The Bad Good Manners Book, 1996, etc.) proves that she can fracture more than Emily Post in this eccentric tale subtitled ``Or how we grew from one-year-old bald wrinklies into eighty-year-old bald wrinklies.'' A question from their grandchildren—``Gran and Grandad, why are you such bald old wrinklies?''—prompts two elderly folks to recite the major events of their lives, from birth to the moment they drop dead and are then ``recycled,'' returning as two scrawny chickens.
Read full book review >
"1958) and the much more recent lessons of Caralyn and Mark Buehner's It's a Spoon, Not a Shovel (1995). (Picture book. 5- 8)"
A rhyming list of dos and don'ts, with the don'ts alluringly depicted in Cole's chaotically zany pencil-and-watercolor illustrations.
Read full book review >
Poor Dr. Dog, the hapless Gumboyle family pet and doctor who is pulled away from a conference in Brazil to tend to his sick and rather disgusting owners.
Read full book review >
"For those who choose to share these specifics with young children, a notably fresh, matter-of-fact approach. (Picture book. 4-8)"
The full facts about human reproduction, ingeniously set in a story about parents who are offering their son and daughter some whimsical explanations—``You were delivered by a dinosaur'' or ``Sometimes you just find them under stones''—while the humor of these possibilities is dramatized in Cole's vibrant, cartoony illustrations.
Read full book review >
A wickedly zany narrative about Uncle, who ``doesn't just play around with boats'' (e.g., the pictured remote-controlled craft in a park)—``He's a pirate!'' With grown-ups looking askance, he buys a treasure map, sets sail even though he can't do enough math to navigate, catches a ride on an accommodating whale, finds the treasure island developed and occupied by tourists, rescues a movie star kidnapped by real pirates, and marries a mermaid on the way home.
Read full book review >
Thank you! You’ll get the first email of recommendations from our critics within a week!
Bummer. There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.
Subscribe to Pro Connect
Be the first to discover new talent!
Each week, our editors select the one author and one book they believe to be most worthy of your attention and highlight them in our Pro Connect email alert.
Sign up here to receive your FREE alerts.
