Never underestimate the power of a treat to motivate.
When Tiny fails to do any of his tricks—sit, stay, shake—his owner decides it’s time for the anything-but-tiny dog to go back to school.
The first spread sets readers up for some laughs: “Tiny is a good dog. He does what I say. / Watch.” But when the boy says, “Sit, Tiny,” the enormous dog lies on his back and looks at his pal. “Oh no!” The boy’s requests that Tiny shake and stay yield similar results. So, it’s off to Happy Dog School, which Tiny is at first reluctant to approach, until he sees all the other dogs there. (They don’t even reach his belly.) In fact, Tiny is so excited by the other dogs that he misbehaves even more. The teacher’s dog treats get Tiny in line, and he turns out to be a wonderful role model for the others. This Level 1 reader has a limited vocabulary (fewer than 55 words), and most sentences are just two or three words long, located against white backgrounds at the bottoms of the pages. The pictures are bright and colorful, helping kids decode words without telling the entire story.
Never underestimate the power of a treat to motivate. (Early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: June 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-670-78607-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles.
Even more alliterative hanky-panky from the creators of The Wonky Donkey (2010).
Operating on the principle (valid, here) that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, Smith and Cowley give their wildly popular Wonky Donkey a daughter—who, being “cute and small,” was a “dinky donkey”; having “beautiful long eyelashes” she was in consequence a “blinky dinky donkey”; and so on…and on…and on until the cumulative chorus sails past silly and ludicrous to irresistibly hysterical: “She was a stinky funky plinky-plonky winky-tinky,” etc. The repeating “Hee Haw!” chorus hardly suggests what any audience’s escalating response will be. In the illustrations the daughter sports her parent’s big, shiny eyes and winsome grin while posing in a multicolored mohawk next to a rustic boombox (“She was a punky blinky”), painting her hooves pink, crossing her rear legs to signal a need to pee (“winky-tinky inky-pinky”), demonstrating her smelliness with the help of a histrionic hummingbird, and finally cozying up to her proud, evidently single parent (there’s no sign of another) for a closing cuddle.
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-60083-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The happy and positive message that not all new beginnings are to be feared is a welcome one.
When Miguel leaves the island of Puerto Rico for the mainland U.S., he worries about all the things he’ll miss—most of all, his pet frog, Coquí.
In San Juan, Miguel takes Coquí everywhere: to play baseball with his friends, to visit the pond in the park, to buy his favorite snack at the bakery, or to visit his abuelos. But when his parents tell him they are moving to the mainland, he worries. Won’t he miss Coquí, flying kites, his grandparents, and taking part in Christmas festivities? In New York, Miguel and his mother explore a neighborhood “full of interesting sights, sounds, and people.” And though Spanish words are around them, so too are other unfamiliar languages. Soon they discover a pond with frogs, a food cart selling empanadillas, a baseball field, and a bakery that sells his favorite snack. As Miguel drifts off to sleep he realizes Puerto Rico will always be with him, in his heart—and though some things in New York are different, some are the same. Perez’s illustrations depict a multiethnic, multicultural New York that is just as colorful, vibrant, and upbeat as the city back home. Miguel and his family have light brown skin and dark hair. A Spanish version, De aquí como el coquí, publishes simultaneously, ably translated by Farah Perez.
The happy and positive message that not all new beginnings are to be feared is a welcome one. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-10903-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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