Mr. McGreely builds a veritable gulag around his garden to keep the rabbits out—before he learns he can’t, so he might as well join them. Come spring and Mr. McGreely decides to make real a long-standing dream: a garden full of lettuce and carrots and peas, the foods he so loves. And, of course, a favorite dietary component of the three rabbits who avidly watch Mr. McGreely plant his patch. When the first sprouts push their heads above the soil, the rabbits shuffle down and sample a few. “Tipppy, Tippy– Tippy– Pat! Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!” Mr. McGreely is furious. So he builds a little wire fence, but it is no more a deterrent to the rabbits than a stiff breeze. He throws up a higher wooden fence that is thwarted by digging, and the moat he subsequently builds is simply swum through. Finally he erects what resembles a super-maximum-security prison—concertina wire, spotlights, 20-foot cement walls: “ ‘I’ve outsmarted those twitch-whiskers for sure,’ he exclaimed.” Indeed, the next morning the garden is as he left it—but what’s that peeking out of the basket he has brought in to hold his harvest. Mr. McGreely grabs a carrot and takes a seat among them. Fleming makes it feel as though everyone has won in this contest, and her use of language and onomatopoetic effect is a singular delight. Equally charming are Karas’s gouache, acrylic, and pencil illustrations, which are droll and wistful, the artist at his witty best. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-83152-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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