Sensitive bedtime winner guaranteed to enchant drowsy kids
Sleeping children on different sides of the ocean are linked by nature’s sounds.
The sun moves west, and an evening breeze “carries the song of crickets” to a sleeping child. Outside, cricket song merges with the “kreck” of frogs and the “poorwill!” of a bird listening for a fox’s woodland footsteps. While the fox sniffs rabbit’s field burrow, she listens to owl’s “hoo” over the ocean, where “sea otters doze” in the bay and whales sing “deep in the sea.” The same breeze draws fishermen to another shore. Here, parakeets “scrawk” in a palm tree growing in the yard of a girl sleeping while crickets sing outside the window. The sonorous text, laced with soothing onomatopoeic animal sounds, transports wee listeners from the bedroom of one sleeping child to that of another. Soporific illustrations in pen, ink, and watercolor realistically capture nature’s creatures in the muted hues of dusk, while deft use of crosshatching suggests nightfall’s atmospheric shadows. The double-page spreads progress from bedroom to yard to woods to fields to shore to ocean and finally to another shore and a different bedroom. A panoramic border at the foot of each spread holistically spans both coasts, transitioning from temperate to tropical worlds as each new page turn reveals minute visual changes reflecting the text.
Sensitive bedtime winner guaranteed to enchant drowsy kids . (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-58259-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade.
An ant explores her world.
Addie Ant’s ready for adventure. Despite some trepidation about leaving the Tomato Bed, where she lives with her aunt, she plucks up her courage and ventures forth across the garden to the far side of the shed. On her journey, she meets her pal Lewis Ladybug, who greets her warmly, points the way, and offers sage advice. When Addie arrives at her destination, she’s welcomed by lovely Beatrix Butterfly and enjoys an “ant-tastic” helping of watermelon. Beatrix also provides Addie with take-home treats and a map for the “Cricket Express,” which will take her straight home. Arriving at the terminal, Addie’s delighted to meet another friend, Cleo Cricket, whose carriage service returns Addie home in “two hops.” After eating a warm tomato soup dinner, Addie falls asleep and dreams of future exploits. Adorable though not terribly original, this story brims with sensuous pleasures, both textual and visual. Kids who declare that they dislike fruits or veggies may find their mouths watering at the mentions and sights of luscious tomatoes, peas, beans, watermelons, berries, and other foodstuffs; insect-averse readers may likewise think differently after encountering these convivial, wide-eyed characters. And those flowers and herbs everywhere! The highlights are the colors that burst from the pages. Addie’s an endearing, empowering character who reassures children they’ll be able to take those first independent steps successfully.
Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade. (author’s note about ants) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781797228914
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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
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