A cache of better rhyming pattern books is available.
An anonymous gift of a rhyming parrot sets off a precarious adventure for a young boy.
Doug, a redheaded, freckle-faced white boy, and his friend, a black girl with pom-pom pigtails who’s not seen again until the end of the book, notice a mysterious package by the mailbox. Out comes Otto, a deceptively cute, green parrot that speaks in rhyme—to magical effect. “DOUG HUG” produces a warm embrace from Otto. “DOUG MUG” elicits a hot cup of cocoa. Then the rhymes become creepy as the magic begins to go awry. “DOUG SLUG” and “DOUG BUG” transform Doug, quite upset, into each creature, respectively. Pleas from Doug to change him back to a boy succeed—with complications: “DOUG DUG. / DOUG RUG” take him from an underground cave to a magic carpet ride above the city, finally culminating with the boy safely in bed… “DOUG SNUG…BUG…RUG….” Thompson’s digitally created cartoon drawings in bold colors are reminiscent of a comic strip, and the format mixes narrative with speech bubbles to extend the familiar idiom, using wordplay and a graduated larger font indicating urgency. Simple digital backgrounds give way to photographic panoramas as Doug soars over the city. The absurd humor and haphazard context for the rhyme pattern make this book less skillfully predictable and balanced as such offerings as Nancy Shaw’s Sheep series for emerging readers.
A cache of better rhyming pattern books is available. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7095-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too many bugs, figuratively.
Lucy, “the youngest member of a family of fireflies,” must overcome an irrational, moon-induced anxiety in order to leave her family tree trunk and glow.
The first six pages pull readers into a lush, beautiful world of nighttime: “When the sun has set, silence falls over the Big Forest, and all of the nighttime animals wake up.” Mixed media provide an enchanting forest background, with stylized flora and fauna eventually illuminated by a large, benign moon, because the night “doesn’t like to catch them by surprise.” Turning the page catches readers by surprise, though: the family of fireflies is decidedly comical and silly-looking. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!’ ” It’s an acceptable change, but more unevenness follows. Lucy’s excitement about finally joining the other bugs turns to “sobbing” two nights in a row. Instead of directly linking her behavior to understandable reactions of children to newness, the text undermines itself by making Lucy’s parents’ sweet reassurances impotent and using the grandmother’s scientific explanation of moonlight as an unnecessary metaphor. Further detracting from the story, the text becomes ever denser and more complex over the book’s short span.
Too many bugs, figuratively. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-84-16147-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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