A real catch for new readers.
Fox takes a trip.
Suitcase and surfboard in tow, Fox sets out on foot to catch a wave. En route to the beach, he passes a bus, a train, and a plane (“catching” none of them), though Tabor’s images of these modes of transportation invite readers to catch fun details such as a pigeon riding the bus, a bat hanging upside down on the train, and a turtle waving from the cockpit of a vintage biplane. Then Fox catches a wave on his surfboard, still toting his suitcase, and rides it to shore. From here, Tabor provides a gently slapstick series of events—involving a tumble down a waterfall and a splash in a chilly pool of water—culminating in Fox catching a cold. A final wordless image offers a laugh-out-loud punchline to the story, with Fox dreaming of catching a bus in a most unusual way. In this latest clever offering in his winning series, Tabor writes in short sentences with controlled vocabulary to make text accessible for the newest of readers, while illustrations rendered in pencil and watercolor add visual interest and humor.
A real catch for new readers. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780063370951
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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