Ecological storytelling at its finest.
Rhino and Tickbird’s query about why Crocodile cries tears leads them from one animal to another, triggering troubling and provocative questions about Africa’s endangered habitats and its vanishing wildlife.
As Crocodile cries beside the Mburu River, Rhino asks Tickbird, “Why is Crocodile crying?” Rather than confront wily Crocodile, Tickbird sagely suggests asking a rare golden eagle, who believes Crocodile misses the trumpeting elephants. Rhino and Tickbird proceed to find an old elephant, who thinks Crocodile misses singing tree frogs. A solo tree frog thinks Crocodile misses flitting blue butterflies. A lone butterfly thinks Crocodile misses giraffes crossing the savanna. A single giraffe thinks Crocodile misses cheetahs sprinting across the grasslands. Cheetah thinks Crocodile misses open spaces, and Ostrich refuses to answer, burying his head in the sand. Then Rhino makes the nearly fatal mistake of asking Crocodile why he cries. Beard’s strong use of textual repetition emphasizes the somber subtext that explores the “ongoing collapse of the wild and its inhabitants,” while his bold signature pen-and-watercolor illustrations rely on line, pattern and color in a primitive style that echoes some African folk art. Like a camera lens, strongly defined borders zero in on the action among Rhino, Tickbird and the endangered animals while droll expressions on animal faces add humorous touches to this cautionary tale.
Ecological storytelling at its finest. (author’s note, glossary of endangered animals with colored photos) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0008-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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
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