This lesson in cooperation goes down easy.
Will competition or cooperation win out at the Great Pumpkin Contest?
Two very different neighbor cats are each determined to win Cat County’s Great Pumpkin Contest. Orange cat Mimi prefers to be indoors and loves to read, although sometimes she wishes for a friend. Gray-and-white Clara prefers the outdoors and likes to garden and to take tea with her friends. The two have different approaches to growing their pumpkins, too. Mimi researches, her efforts leading to the picture-perfect garden, growing a gigantic pumpkin for the contest. Clara takes a looser approach. Her small, perfect pumpkins are scattered in her yard. A high, brick wall separates the two yards, and the two hardly ever interact. In the end, Mimi pays the price for going it alone: Her giant pumpkin falls out of the wheelbarrow and covers everyone in “pumpkin guts.” She runs home, mortified. Clara extends the hand of friendship (and one of her pumpkins), and the two make a plan to work together next year. And the contest? Both turn out to be winners. Rozelaar ends the tale with a page showing a simplified life cycle of a pumpkin. Her friendly illustrations are brightly colored and nicely textured, depicting sweater-clad cats with large, round heads and stubby limbs. The anthropomorphic cats’ expressive faces evince a wide range of emotions, including amazement, suspicion, and anger. Don’t miss the book titles in Mimi’s house or her clever fridge magnets.
This lesson in cooperation goes down easy. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-274137-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn.
A young owl achieves his grand ambition.
Owl, an adorably earnest and gallant little owlet, dreams of being a knight. He imagines himself defeating dragons and winning favor far and wide through his brave exploits. When a record number of knights go missing, Owl applies to Knight School and is surprisingly accepted. He is much smaller than the other knights-in-training, struggles to wield weapons, and has “a habit of nodding off during the day.” Nevertheless, he graduates and is assigned to the Knight Night Watch. While patrolling the castle walls one night, a hungry dragon shows up and Owl must use his wits to avoid meeting a terrible end. The result is both humorous and heartwarming, offering an affirmation of courage and clear thinking no matter one’s size…and demonstrating the power of a midnight snack. The story never directly addresses the question of the missing knights, but it is hinted that they became the dragon’s fodder, leaving readers to question Owl’s decision to befriend the beast. Humor is supplied by the characters’ facial expressions and accented by the fact that Owl is the only animal in his order of big, burly human knights. Denise’s accomplished digital illustrations—many of which are full bleeds—often use a warm sepia palette that evokes a feeling of antiquity, and some spreads feature a pleasing play of chiaroscuro that creates suspense and drama.
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31062-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
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