Goofy fun with wordplay. You can count on it.
Wordplay abounds, as evidenced by the title’s “EnCOUNTers,” in this counting book featuring anthropomorphic creatures in the wild.
Readers count up to 13 with affable animal groups, from one moose to 13 sea gulls. In short sentences, heavy on alliteration, they learn that each group is up to something (a “moose mak[es] a movie”; “bears bik[e] by the bay”; and “seals [go] surfing”). The animals’ speech-balloon dialogue consists of silly wordplay; most of it involves playing with the sounds of English. The moose, for instance, declares its movie is a “moose-ical,” and a young fort-making deer announces it’s “really fawn-d” of its creation. The lively, playful illustrations move the action along as if it takes place on a wide stage. A new animal group appears to the right of the previous one at each page turn. Whatever readers see on the far right of the recto appears on the next spread’s verso: A discarded bottle of cider in the right corner of a spread with two raccoons appears as the centerpiece of the next one, as slugs feast on its contents. The story comes full circle with a black-haired, beige-skinned child who, unseen by the animals, watches the tomfoolery from behind foliage. Despite the inclusion of “Forest Friends” in the subtitle, readers also follow animals to the bay, where they meet groups of otters, orcas, seals, and sea gulls.
Goofy fun with wordplay. You can count on it. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63217-274-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends.
Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!
Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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