Visual stumble aside, each page lends itself to an energetic seek-and-find storytime that promises new discoveries upon...
Bartholomew’s love for his pets extends to the classroom, much to the dismay of his exasperated teacher, Mr. Patanoose.
Bartholomew can count a great many species of animals as pets: a goat, dogs, a snake, birds, fish, a spider—he has them all, and a few more in between. Each day of the week Bartholomew brings a different pet to school. On Monday, after he brings in Ferdinand the frog, Mr. Patanoose says, “No frogs in school.” So on Tuesday, Bartholomew brings in Sigfried the salamander—after all, a salamander is not a frog. Amphibians are then banned. On Wednesday Bartholomew brings in Horace the hamster (not an amphibian), leading to a no-rodents rule. Bartholomew continues skirting Mr. Patanoose’s rules until finally he decides to donate Rivka the rabbit to the class so that the adorable gray bunny can be everyone’s pet. This charming story uses repetition and humor to cleverly share information, as Bartholomew, a brown-skinned boy with black curly hair, uses his love for and knowledge of animals to find loopholes in Mr. Patanoose’s increasing list of rules. The cartoony illustrations are a colorful mix of watercolors abundant with vibrant yellows and pale greens. In the depiction of Bartholomew’s multicultural classroom is one notable misstep, as it includes a black girl with plaits sticking up all over her head, harkening unhappily back to the Little Rascals’ Buckwheat and other pickaninny stereotypes.
Visual stumble aside, each page lends itself to an energetic seek-and-find storytime that promises new discoveries upon multiple reads. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2698-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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