A bland take on a heavily used plot that nevertheless has some potential as a high-volume storytime choice.
A junkyard robot ventures out into the wide world in search of a friend.
Watkins lavishes considerably more care on his illustrations and sound effects than on the trite storyline and prose. He sends his lonely bot out on the road knowing only (from a found advertisement) that a “Best Friend” says “Bark.” The trip becomes an odyssey as farm animals (“BAAAAA”; “OINK”), woodland creatures (“GROWL!”), jungle residents (“OO-OO AH-AAAH!”), and even fish (“GLUB!”) disappoint him. When at last a gaudily feathered rain-forest parrot repeats his “BARK?” Raybot is delighted: “A puppy!” The pleasure is compounded as the “puppy” comes with a wagging, four-footed companion that says, “WOOF!” Off the three go together, Raybot realizing that “puppies and friends come in all different shapes and sizes.” How Raybot makes the conceptual conclusive leap is quite unclear. A close visual cousin to the lanky, lantern-jawed mechanicals in Watkins’ R Is for Robot (2014), Raybot poses with a great many big, open-mouthed, mostly friendly-looking animals. Their sometimes-unexpected utterances—a beaver’s “SKWEEP,” “BARAAG!” from a giraffe, a hippo’s bellowed “HU-HU-HURUUGH!”—are likely to be all that will catch the attention of, and tempt responses from, young audiences.
A bland take on a heavily used plot that nevertheless has some potential as a high-volume storytime choice. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8431-8300-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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