Not just for Thanksgiving, this should be a welcome addition to nature shelves all year round. (Informational picture book....
After discovering a flock of turkeys in her yard in the spring, Jenny continues to watch them throughout the year.
With a simple text, mostly rhyming couplets, the young nature watcher describes the turkeys’ appearance and behavior as they nest and raise their young in the woods nearby. She notes particularly how they walk and fly. “Toms strut and puff to look their best.” In a departure from her previous straight collage work (Scoot, 2008, and others), Falwell augments her multi-media (cut and torn paper and found natural materials) images with overlaid block prints. Leaf prints add further texture. These charming illustrations also show other animals, including deer, chickadees, cardinals and squirrels. Plants and trees are recognizable as those of the author-illustrator’s Maine world, and seasons are indicated with a vignette underneath the text: apple blossoms, dandelion flower, red leaf, snow flake. Images of turkeys slipping on the frozen ground and the child’s imagined vision of them sliding down snowy hills add humor. The book concludes with “Jenny's Journal,” straightforward exposition offering more facts about turkeys for older readers. As she’s done before, the author includes suggestions for artwork and other activities. An “Animal Tracks” puzzle provides an appealing conclusion.
Not just for Thanksgiving, this should be a welcome addition to nature shelves all year round. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58469-148-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade.
An ant explores her world.
Addie Ant’s ready for adventure. Despite some trepidation about leaving the Tomato Bed, where she lives with her aunt, she plucks up her courage and ventures forth across the garden to the far side of the shed. On her journey, she meets her pal Lewis Ladybug, who greets her warmly, points the way, and offers sage advice. When Addie arrives at her destination, she’s welcomed by lovely Beatrix Butterfly and enjoys an “ant-tastic” helping of watermelon. Beatrix also provides Addie with take-home treats and a map for the “Cricket Express,” which will take her straight home. Arriving at the terminal, Addie’s delighted to meet another friend, Cleo Cricket, whose carriage service returns Addie home in “two hops.” After eating a warm tomato soup dinner, Addie falls asleep and dreams of future exploits. Adorable though not terribly original, this story brims with sensuous pleasures, both textual and visual. Kids who declare that they dislike fruits or veggies may find their mouths watering at the mentions and sights of luscious tomatoes, peas, beans, watermelons, berries, and other foodstuffs; insect-averse readers may likewise think differently after encountering these convivial, wide-eyed characters. And those flowers and herbs everywhere! The highlights are the colors that burst from the pages. Addie’s an endearing, empowering character who reassures children they’ll be able to take those first independent steps successfully.
Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade. (author’s note about ants) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781797228914
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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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