The creators of Gabriella’s Song (1997) return with another robust heroine, who is in search of the elusive pink-headed duck. Young Agnes Peregrine, the world’s most talented bird caller, travels to the distant Himalayas, little knowing that close behind stalks nefarious Colonel Edwin Pittsnap, intent on adding a new trophy to his vast collection. Dressing Agnes and her mother, famed ornithologist Octavia Peregrine, in bloomers, high-button shoes and full, elegant dresses, Potter shows the intrepid birdwatchers in a variety of outdoorsy locales, and when the mustachioed villain at last appears, Agnes’s operatic clucks and whistles summon a horde of delicately detailed avian allies (labeled and described on the endpapers) to drive the birdnapper away. Having put in an appearance, the duck wings off, leaving an appreciative audience of two waving farewell. The end may fall a bit flat, but Agnes shows admirable spunk in the clutch, and children, bird lovers or not, will want to imitate her hoots and warbles. (Picture book. 6-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81471-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
PLB 0-688-16996-1 In this charming lullaby, a mother elephant tries to sooth little Jumbo to sleep with gentle rhyming nonsense verses about other animals and their babies: “Zebras sleeping in the shadows,/ where they’re safely out of sight,/dream themselves in gorgeous colors/anything but black and white.” Little Jumbo sees the technicolor zebras, and the cloud-bounding gazelles, and even Uncle Rhino swimming as a sleek “rhinocer-fish.” At last the baby elephant sleeps, and the mother concludes as many human mothers have before: “Now that you are sleeping too, dear,/how I sigh with sweet relief./Slumber peacefully, my darling,/Mama’s love is wide and deep.” Sorenson conveys a pleasing blend of realism and whimsy, showing in wonderful watercolors a variety of wild animals settling down to sleep. An appealing good night book for young children and their weary parents (Picture book. 2-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16550-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999
A little bear’s day is filled with love—big, small, buzzing, wet, and sweet. Andreae points out that love can cover a much wider range of experiences than simple romantic notions, and may not even involve another person: “Love is a feeling of laughing out loud,” or, more insipidly, “Love is a rainbow that bursts through the sky when the sun begins shining again.” Where there is a connection to another person or creature, “Love is when somebody quietly listens to everything you’ve got to say.” Making friends with bees, slurping handfuls of honey, and bursting to share the day’s adventures with family at bathtime are some of the more original expressions of feeling that ring true. Cabban’s illustrations show the little bear’s world as a secure, happy place—just the kind of home where love abounds. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-888444-58-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
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