“Look, here comes Otto!” Milgrim (My Friend Lucky, 2002, etc.) introduces a robot named Otto in the first of a series for emergent readers, and he succeeds quite well in telling a complete and humorous story using a basic vocabulary of just 21 words. Otto is a robot from another planet who falls to earth when his spaceship runs out of gas. (“See Otto fall.”) He meets an unfriendly rhinoceros who gives chase. (“Run, Otto, run!”) The rhino tosses Otto into a tree where some friendly monkeys are painting, causing the monkeys, Otto, and the paint pots to tumble to the ground. (“See paint fly.”) Though the limited vocabulary imposes its own restraints, Milgrim uses visual humor with a touch of irony to craft a real story with enough action to appeal to new readers. His illustrations have a bold flair with thick black outlines, a contemporary pastel palette of cool colors, and an appealing main character who seems ready to get into more mischief with those monkeys. The next story in the series is also available (Ride, Otto, Ride, ISBN: 0-689-84417-4). More, Otto, more. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84416-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
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
A sweet iteration of the “Big Bad Wolf Mellows Out” theme. Here, an old wolf does some soul searching and then learns to like vegetable stew after a half-frozen lamb appears on his doorstep, falls asleep in his arms, then wakes to give him a kiss. “I can’t eat a lamb who needs me! I might get heartburn!” he concludes. Clad in striped leggings and a sleeveless pullover decorated with bands of evergreens, the wolf comes across as anything but dangerous, and the lamb looks like a human child in a fleecy overcoat. No dreams are likely to be disturbed by this book, but hardened members of the Oshkosh set might prefer the more credible predators and sense of threat in John Rocco’s Wolf! Wolf! (March 2007) or Delphine Perrot’s Big Bad Wolf and Me (2006). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-58925-067-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
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