A bittersweet, vividly rendered animal story.
An abandoned dog finds a new family and friendship in this picture book.
Pug is a small canine who lives happily with a human family in a small house. Piggy, a petite speckled pig, lives on a farm, loves to play with the boy who takes care of her, and is sad when he’s at school. One day, Pug’s family suddenly moves, leaving him behind; meanwhile, Piggy tries to make new friends on the farm. However, butterflies and turtles flee from Pug, and the pig has no luck talking with cows and chickens. After a fox chases Pug to the farm, the dog and pig find each other. The farm family realizes that Pug’s former owners left him behind because they couldn’t afford him, so they decide to keep him. This quirky tale of friendship has a happy ending, and readers are sure to take its lessons to heart. The book seems like it might have been intended to have full-page illustrations; instead, it presents four small ones on every two-page spread. Still, debut author Wheaton’s accessible text is surrounded by white space, which will make it accessible for newly independent readers; the easy-to-follow plot will keep them engaged. Debut illustrator Jacob’s brightly colored images feature lovable animal characters and Caucasian humans in a Disney-like style.
A bittersweet, vividly rendered animal story.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9741160-9-9
Page Count: 31
Publisher: Monolith Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.
Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.
As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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