Here’s the dirt on this one: Kids will dig it.
Roy the dog seriously digs dirt.
Who can blame him? Sitting, rolling around, and lying in dirt make him happy because dirt is so deliciously…well, dirty, and Roy loves being dirty. Eating, sniffing, watching, and listening to dirt are fantastic. Roy likes burying and unearthing cool, fun stuff in dirt, including some crawly critters and an imaginary friend, likewise named Roy. Surprisingly, there are things Roy doesn’t dig about dirt, though: ants and mud. You see, rain makes mud, or “dirt gravy.” Mud by itself is terrific; unfortunately, mud plus Roy equals very dreaded baths. Roy. Doesn’t. Dig. Baths. What does Roy dig when there’s no dirt around? Rugs, blankets, and newspapers suffice until he enters the jungle that is the backyard. Sadly, encounters with smelly trespassers could occur there, and—yep—baths might ensue! Still, all is well for Roy as he awakens each morning to a day filled with new dirty adventures. This is a rollicking story that will especially resonate with readers who are unapologetically messy. They’ll revel in the delights of wallowing in grunge and may themselves sympathize with a bath-averse protagonist. Shannon’s illustrations are comically energetic, and Roy’s expressions are hilariously wild-eyed, tongue-lolling, and frenzied. Roy’s white coat helps keep the focus on dirty patches.
Here’s the dirt on this one: Kids will dig it. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-25101-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A particularly soppy, sloppy addition to an already-overstuffed genre.
A bear cub gets a load of lyrical loving from a lumbering parent in this nature walk.
Expressed in stumbling rhyme—“I love you more than trees / love to change with every season. / I love you more than anything. / I cannot name just one reason”—Benson’s perfervid sentiments accompany scenes of bear and cub strolling through stands of birch, splashing into a river to watch (just watch) fish, and, in a final moonlit scene, cuddling beneath starry skies. Foxes, otters, and other animal parents and offspring, likewise adoring, make foreground cameos along the way in Lambert’s neatly composed paper-collage–style illustrations. Since the bears are obvious stand-ins for humans (the cub even points at things and in most views is posed on two legs), the gender ambiguity in both writing and art allow human readers some latitude in drawing personal connections, but that’s not enough to distinguish this uninspired effort among the teeming swarm of “I Love You This Much!” titles.
A particularly soppy, sloppy addition to an already-overstuffed genre. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68010-022-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Engaging, rewarding, and utterly delightful.
Readers count from one to 10 and then jump from there to 15, 20, and 25 in this picture book featuring creatures in the wild.
Animals and their babies take the stage in this paper-engineered tale that allows young readers to make surprise discoveries. On the first spread, they meet a bat. Lift up the precisely die-cut bat’s wing to see “1 baby / Holding on tight as they fly through the night.” Page turns are propelled by the query that concludes each and every spread: “Who has more babies than that?” Continuing to count upward, readers meet leopard cubs, owlets, fox kits, leverets, caterpillars, and many more animals. Creatively designed flaps and die cuts, as well as pages with nontraditional trims, invite young hands to lift, peek, and search: Lift leaf-shaped flaps to see “8 baby mice”; peek through tree-trunk–shaped die cuts to see a forest with “15 poults”; and turn pages shaped like verdant hills to see “2 lambs.” The rhymes are unfussy, pleasingly rhythmic, and have unfailingly flawless meter (“9 ducklings / Swimming and snacking, / Practicing quacking”). Richly colored illustrations in vivid crimson, sapphire, marble green, and copper hues feature realistic animals in their natural habitats, though most are given sleek, wide, stylized eyes. The final spread throws readers a curveball with “LOTS of spiderlings,” depicted as die-cut holes with eight legs each on the previous page—and, it turns out, many of the pages before that.
Engaging, rewarding, and utterly delightful. (Picture book/novelty. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-32453-0
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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