Huggy is an adorable character, no mean feat for a python; here’s hoping more of these tender life lessons in the Wee...
Readers teach Huggy the Python how to be gentle.
True to his name, this green, top-hat–wearing, scarf-sporting snake “LOVES to hug the things he loves.” However, disaster ensues when he hugs a balloon and then an oversized bowl of ice cream. “OOPS! You hugged too hard, Huggy.” The unseen narrator stops the action before Huggy can do any damage to a “fuzzy little dog.” Readers are instructed to give the impossibly cute, huge-eyed little pooch a model, “GENTLE” hug, and the dog’s happy dance combines with exuberant confetti to underscore that it “was a GREAT gentle hug!” Huggy learns by this example and follows suit (though his enthusiastic, simultaneous embrace of a tube of toothpaste makes it clear just what the self-control costs him). Dyckman’s jaunty, conversational narration and Griffiths’ fluid and charming cartoons in cheery colors against white backgrounds are perfectly matched. Roary the Lion Roars Too Loud publishes simultaneously.
Huggy is an adorable character, no mean feat for a python; here’s hoping more of these tender life lessons in the Wee Beasties series are on the way. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1080-0
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
The sparkly cover and less-than-exciting interactive elements fail to fully convey the majesty of the watery deep.
A diver directly recruits his audience to explore the salty sea.
Closed, the shaped cover follows the curve of the diver’s helmet; open, it evokes goggles through which readers can explore the deep. A variety of underwater creatures are revealed through lifting flaps; brief rhyming text on the undersides of the flaps provides a little informational heft. These rhymes are not distinguished by their lyricism, alas. “Jellyfish are pretty— / some glow in the dark. / But don't swim too close— / their sting leaves a mark.” The simply drawn creatures are not depicted to scale. The seahorse dominates its page, while the toothy shark appears shorter than the sea turtle. Two-toned blue backgrounds evoke waves. Space Walk uses an identical format to survey the planets (all eight of them) and is equally superficial.
The sparkly cover and less-than-exciting interactive elements fail to fully convey the majesty of the watery deep. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4027-8525-2
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
This holiday ditty misses too many beats.
The traditional story of the first Thanksgiving is set to the tune of “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and stars rodents instead of humans.
The titular itsy-bitsy Pilgrim, a mouse dressed in iconic Puritan garb, sails to “a home that’s new” with three other mice on the Mayflower. They build a house, shovel snow, and greet some “itsy bitsy new friends,” who are chipmunks dressed as Native Americans complete with feathered headbands, beaded necklaces, and leather clothing. While Rescek’s art is droll and lively, it is wildly idealized, and the Native Americans’ clothing does not reflect what is understood of Wampanoag attire. The companion title, The Itsy Bitsy Reindeer, presents equally buoyant scenes. The reindeer and several elves, who appear to be white children with pointed ears, help Santa (also white) prepare for his annual sleigh-ride delivery. In both books, would-be singers may struggle to fit all the words and syllables into the meter, and a couple of rhymes are extremely forced (“shop” and “job”?).
This holiday ditty misses too many beats. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6852-7
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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