The familiar children’s playground chant, “Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar,” is broadened here into a picture-book mystery that’s a delight to view, but less successful as a read-aloud. When a skunk goes to the cookie jar to get cookies to go with his milk, all he finds are crumbs. In turn, he asks his friends mouse, raven, squirrel, rabbit, turtle, raccoon, snake, beaver, and frog if they have taken the treats. The individual denials and the connecting refrain, “Then who took the cookies? The jar was full! Where did they go? Mmm . . . Oh! . . . Now I know . . .” strain, and the added words throw off the easy rhythm of the original. But Wolff’s (Each Living Thing, p. 56, etc.) white-framed watercolor and pen-on-paper illustrations are bold and lively, expanding on the brief text. The setting is a desert expanse with cactus and wildflowers in bloom and a stream meandering through. Wolff introduces skunk on the title page as he holds a steaming tray of chocolate chip cookies, and a lizard accompanies skunk throughout his search, which lasts well past nightfall. They follow visual clues such as the trail of cookie crumbs and various footprints, the search culminating in a moonlit celebration. It won’t take observant viewers too long, however, to guess the culprits, as a line of ants parades across the front left endpaper. They are pointing to a page where the game is explained, with suggested variations, and a melody and guitar chords are provided for singing the original song. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-316-82016-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
A brother and sister participate in their Tae Kwon Do class in a most welcome addition to the Step into Reading series. This level-one title sports predominantly one-syllable, short vowel words in two-to-four-word sentences. Spirited images and mainly well-chosen action words in rhyme will hook little boys: “We count. We yell. We all kick well.” But the multicultural, coed students portrayed here, and the apparent accuracy of belt colors and class content, widen the applications. Bonita’s illustrations depict cheerful, cartoonish kids with shiny button noses, impossibly pudgy feet and thighs like enrobed sausages, but the sparring, jabbing and block-busting yield a sure hit. Parents, teachers and librarians desperate for first-level, child-appealing readers will cheer out loud—and quite possibly execute a few joyous spinning kicks of their own—as they snap this one up. (Easy reader. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 25, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83448-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2006
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat.
Dinos that love to move and groove get children counting from one to 10—and perhaps moving to the beat.
Beginning with a solo bop by a female dino (she has eyelashes, doncha know), the dinosaur dance party begins. Each turn of the page adds another dino and a change in the dance genre: waltz, country line dancing, disco, limbo, square dancing, hip-hop, and swing. As the party would be incomplete without the moonwalk, the T. Rex does the honors…and once they are beyond their initial panic at his appearance, the onlookers cheer wildly. The repeated refrain on each spread allows for audience participation, though it doesn’t easily trip off the tongue: “They hear a swish. / What’s this? / One more? / One more dino on the floor.” Some of the prehistoric beasts are easily identifiable—pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, triceratops—but others will be known only to the dino-obsessed; none are identified, other than T-Rex. Packed spreads filled with psychedelically colored dinos sporting blocks of color, stripes, or polka dots (and infectious looks of joy) make identification even more difficult, to say nothing of counting them. Indeed, this fails as a counting primer: there are extra animals (and sometimes a grumpy T-Rex) in the backgrounds, and the next dino to join the party pokes its head into the frame on the page before. Besides all that, most kids won’t get the dance references.
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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