Frothy fun.
A sled race spirals out of control.
It’s race day for a trio of Ice Age sledders, and while competition between Wolf and Otto the great auk heats up an otherwise-frigid morning, Wally Mammoth is just happy to have been invited. Clad in a fuzzy pink turtleneck and giddy with gladness to slalom with pals, the contented Wally truly believes it’s not about who wins or loses. The threesome take off as the referee waves a green flag. But competitive ambitions soon prove ruinous as unwieldy speed sends Wolf and Otto swerving. In the crash’s slapstick fallout, the two are swallowed by a steadily speeding, ever-growing snowball. Wally’s now in the lead, and as Otto and Wolf tumble down the hill, they pepper their friend with requests to share the victory spoils (“If you win, can I hold the trophy?” “If you win, can I have a cupcake?”). The snowball gains momentum, closing in until the pachyderm, too, is enveloped with a “SHOOOP.” All three friends roll over the finish line together, tying for gold and learning a valuable lesson about pride along the way. Tabor’s text is accessible for new readers—deftly balancing narrative tension with requisite simplicity—and Wally proves a root-for-able foil to the other two competitive compatriots. Webb’s art appealingly complements the silliness of the trio’s plight, rendering characters with a delightful cartoonish expressiveness.
Frothy fun. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780063434912
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
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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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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