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GUESS WHO, HAIKU

Not to be missed: gorgeous poetry, vibrant illustrations, and masterful use of the page turn.

Haiku at play in the animal world and vice versa.

In the first of what readers will hope will be many collaborations, Caswell and Shea team up in this charming collection of haiku for pre-readers. Caswell takes her lead from the hai of haiku, which, she explains, in Japanese means “to make light of,” presenting 10 bite-sized poetic portraits of common animals as riddles for children to solve. First, she offers a serene poetic snapshot—“a soft nose in oats / after an afternoon ride / back at the stable”—and invites readers to “guess who” is the haiku’s subject. Then, making the most of the picture-book format, the page turn reveals “A horse!” realized in Shea’s bold and cheery mixed-media illustration. That subject then offers another haiku—“one small speckled egg / wings wrap a breezy cradle / up on the treetop”—continuing the enticing chain of haiku riddles, guessing, and deeply satisfying page-turn revelations. One can just imagine roomfuls of children shouting their guesses in gleeful anticipation of Shea’s heartwarming illustrations of Caswell’s haiku subjects. Overall, a superb introduction to this potent poetic form, teaching pre-readers both the evocative power of description and the reward for listening closely.

Not to be missed: gorgeous poetry, vibrant illustrations, and masterful use of the page turn. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)

Pub Date: March 8, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4197-1889-2

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Abrams Appleseed

Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016

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LITTLE BO PEEP

From the Nursery Rhyme Crimes series

Fails to live up to the high standards already in place for alternative-POV classics.

Illustrator Lamont’s Nursery Rhyme Crimes series gets off to an uneven start. 

The device of retelling classic tales from another viewpoint is no longer new, but it remains popular. Here, the bored shepherding tyke struggles to teach her flock how to play hide and seek, only to later lose them because they have hidden themselves so well. Though the adults who have to search for them aren’t impressed at the trick, the sheep feel she was unjustly blamed. In the simultaneously publishing companion, Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son, the pig tells the truth behind the lesser-known rhyme about a boy, a stolen pig and a beating. It seems the boy and the pig were fast friends, bonding over the boy’s piping and the pig’s “pongs.” But when the pig hears the word “bacon,” the boy steals him away to live in the forest. While there is nothing inherently wrong with Lamont’s stories, they don't have much pizzazz either. Moreover, their appeal Stateside may be limited. A few British spellings (practised, pedalled, cos) and several rhymes that don't work with American accents will trip readers up. “When we came out from where we were hid, / how surprised they all were, to be sure. / But it seems that Bo Peep was sent home in disgrace— / you would think that she’d broken the law!” And although Lamont’s pen-and-watercolor illustrations amuse, they do not compensate for the books’ liabilities.

Fails to live up to the high standards already in place for alternative-POV classics. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: May 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-84780-154-8

Page Count: 20

Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012

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LITTLE MISS MUFFET

Those with similar fears may feel empathy for Miss Muffet’s plight; others will just giggle at the improbability of it all.

The most famous scaredy-cat of them all experiences fright after fright before finally getting to enjoy her curds and whey.

Trapani continues Miss Muffet’s story: “All through the room, / She zipped and she zoomed / And looked for a place to hide. // A mouse came to find her; / It scurried behind her. / The dainty Miss bolted outside.” From a frog in the bushes and a crow at the top of a tree to a fish next to her canoe and a moose on the shore, it’s one thing after another. Finally, she unwinds in a bubble bath before once again settling on her tuffet (here pictured as an upholstered footstool) for a snack. Readers will barely be able to contain themselves when they spy the spider climbing up the tuffet leg. Indeed, Trapani slyly inserts clues as to what might next befall the hapless Miss Muffet in her brightly colored illustrations, which humorously capture both Miss Muffet’s primness and her fright. The rhythm and rhyme are not as tight as in others of Trapani’s extended nursery rhymes—she rhymes “scuttered” with “water” and “canoe” with “out to”—but it’s still a fun romp. The back cover includes the music and the words to all eight verses.

Those with similar fears may feel empathy for Miss Muffet’s plight; others will just giggle at the improbability of it all. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-62087-986-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013

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