Sayre and Jenkins (Vulture View, 2007, etc.) collaborate again, here exploring the habits of squirrels.
Four squirrel species native to the U.S. are introduced, but Jenkins’ cut-paper collages focus on the eastern fox squirrel. Sayre’s simple verses are delivered in short, staccato rhythms, occasionally asking readers to speculate or reflect. “Squirrels chirp. / Squirrels drink. / Can you guess / what squirrels think?” (A groundhog is pictured, without comment, in the accompanying spread.) The pictures nimbly extend the compressed text, showing a squirrel fleeing an avian predator and digging to bury acorns. An ensuing spread shows a row of acorns, buried in the earth below a dusting of snow. “Five are hidden. / Will they sprout?” A page turn shows four acorns in various stages of sprouting, while the fifth, sporting a small hole in its surface, remains inert. Additional information about squirrel habitat is appended, along with suggestions for fostering it by planting trees.
Apt verse and appealing visuals provide young naturalists with a springboard for discussion and further discovery. (notes, bibliography of adult sources, website) (Informational picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9251-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Hee haw.
12
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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. 29, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Likely to cause some imaginative prancing among unicorn and kitty lovers.
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Is Kitty only a kitten? Or might she be a noble unicorn?
Inspired by the unicorn on her poster, Kitty crafts a perfect horn and admires herself in the mirror. She feels “unicorn-y.” Her friends disagree. “ ‘You’re not a unicorn, putty-pie,’ says Parakeet. / ‘You’re curled up like a cat, fluffy-fry,’ says Gecko.” So Kitty uncurls to prance and gallop, but her detractors point out her tiny tail. With some effort she plumps it up. They tell her she will never be a unicorn because she meows like a cat; this, of course, prompts her to let out a loud “NEIGH!” Parakeet and Gecko are having none of it, each time varying their mild name-calling. As the sun dips low, Kitty’s sure her long shadow looks like a unicorn’s—until a real unicorn clops into view. Gecko and Parakeet are impressed, and Kitty feels insignificant. But this unicorn has a secret…a pair of fluffy, pink kitty ears the same pink as Kitty’s. They can be kitty-corns together, best friends. Unicorn fans will definitely identify with Hale’s protagonist and respond well to Pham’s bright cartoons, laid out as spot illustrations that pop against the mostly all-white backgrounds. The way Kitty’s friends dismissively poke fun with their name-calling may give some readers pause, but the be-true-to-the-inner-you message and the expressive characterizations add appeal. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 51.2% of actual size.)
Likely to cause some imaginative prancing among unicorn and kitty lovers. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5091-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
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