Strictly for cheap laffs.
What the beginning of the universe, the Mona Lisa’s smile, and certain other epochal touchstones in between have in common.
Pandering again to audiences that can’t get enough of certain words—or in this case sound effects—often enough, the creators of Whose Poo? (2021) string together a series of events linked, in Coppo’s elementally simple gouache frames, by small green clouds emerging from one butt or another with disproportionate consequences. A family of mice sits down to watch a “very serious” documentary. “Best show ever!” squees a child to a discomfited parent as the first “PFFFT!” bursts into stars and galaxies, the next one from a tiny primordial fish drives animals out onto dry land, another from a volcano leads to the downfall of the dinosaurs (“Dad, is that why it’s called exSTINKtion?”), and later putts end an ice age, cause the Sphinx’s nose to fall off, knock the apples off Isaac Newton’s tree, and other watershed events. Critics might carp that the fumes sending a diversely hued crew of Vikings fleeing to North America come from a whale’s blowhole…but any port (so to speak) in a storm, and it’s not like accuracy is a priority here. Dad as usual becomes the (wait for it) butt of the joke as he produces the biggest PFFFT! of all while indignantly reaching for the remote’s off switch. Why dads should be unamused by this breezy revisionist history is anybody’s guess. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Strictly for cheap laffs. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9780735268012
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson.
After a visit, an African-American grandfather and grandson say farewell under a big yellow moon. Granpa tells Max it is the same moon he will see when he gets home.
This gently told story uses Max’s fascination with the moon’s ability to “tag along” where his family’s car goes as a metaphor for his grandfather’s constant love. Separating the two relatives is “a swervy-curvy road” that travels up and down hills, over a bridge, “past a field of sleeping cows,” around a small town and through a tunnel. No matter where Max travels, the moon is always there, waiting around a curve or peeking through the trees. But then “[d]ark clouds tumbled across the night sky.” No stars, no nightingales and no moon are to be found. Max frets: “Granpa said it would always shine for me.” Disappointed, Max climbs into bed, missing both the moon and his granpa. In a dramatic double-page spread, readers see Max’s excitement as “[s]lowly, very slowly, Max’s bedroom began to fill with a soft yellow glow.” Cooper uses his signature style to illustrate both the landscape—sometimes viewed from the car windows or reflected in the vehicle’s mirror—and the expressive faces of his characters. Coupled with the story’s lyrical text, this is a lovely mood piece.
A quiet, warm look at the bond between grandfather and grandson. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-23342-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
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