THE HOWLING HIMALAYAN AND PEPE AT WORTHWYLE

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THE HOWLING HIMALAYAN AND PEPE AT WORTHWYLE

Name: THE HOWLING HIMALAYAN AND PEPE AT WORTHWYLE
Author: Angela DeFina
ISBN: 978-1-5245-0185-3

by Angela DeFina ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2016

A clumsily executed tale, although its happy ending will have some appeal.

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An illustrated debut children’s book that tells the story of a family and their beloved cat.

Every morning, a beautiful, unnamed Himalayan cat wakes up a woman named Pepe with howls that can be heard throughout the house. After Pepe shushes the feline, the two snooze a bit together—but then the hungry meows start up again. Young siblings Pam and Andy wait in bed as Pepe, their mother, goes downstairs to feed their pet, who keeps making noise all the way. After breakfast, the Himalayan runs outside the house, known as Worthwyle, apparently to explore the neighborhood—and it soon gets lost. Pepe’s neighbor Sam helps in the search for the cat and soon returns it, much to the delight of the praying family. Everyone agrees that what makes Worthwyle so wonderful are its residents’ “thoughtfulness and love / virtues to practice all of life / for you and me.” The subject of DeFina’s brief book—a family pet who escapes but returns—offers a relatable, reassuring scenario for youngsters, and it’s underscored by a final image that shows the big hearts of the family members. However, the prose is often awkward, and it employs no consistent rhyme scheme. Sometimes it uses quatrains in an ABCB pattern, or it uses another scheme entirely, such as AAABCB. It also employs lines of variable length to facilitate rhymes (“Pepe puts on her robe and slippers / and steps down the stair / for to keep the Himalayan howling / would not be fair”) or introduces an element seemingly for rhyme’s sake, such as a hen to rhyme with “open.” The illustrations are colorful but often have a flat, generic quality, and their lack of diversity—all four humans appear white with light-brown hair—may disappoint some parents.

A clumsily executed tale, although its happy ending will have some appeal.

Pub Date: May 20, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5245-0185-3

Page Count: 30

Publisher: Xlibris

Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

by Josh Schneider & illustrated by Josh Schneider ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2011

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Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

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by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

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by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

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ABIYOYO RETURNS

by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001

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The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)