Still no more than a rough draft despite being buffed up by an editor, Freeman’s son and a second illustrator, Jody Wheeler, this sketchy tale of a Washington, D.C., squirrel rooting through autumn leaves for acorns buried “last summer” should have stayed in the trunk. Crossing a broad avenue and scurrying through an open gate—“which,” as the wooden text has it, “is something not every visitor can do, you may be certain”—Earl the squirrel scampers about the Mall, past other squirrels and a group of children planting trees. In what passes for the climax, a parade turns out to be only a temporary obstacle to his final sortie, as the same children hold up their hands so he can make the leap back across the street and home to a “Well done, my dear,” from his wife. Perky squirrels and several familiar D.C. monuments in the backgrounds give the broadly brushed art some visual interest, but not enough to compensate for the stiff prose and negligible plot. A disappointment, particularly after the likewise posthumous but far more finished Manuelo the Playing Mantis (2004). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-670-01083-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
Big fun for new readers who are ready to turn their Where’s Waldo skills to finding text.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Big Bunny!
Controlled, repetitive text invites children to read short sentences directing them to find “a foot…a hand…a tail,” and so on. These named body parts belong to a figure that isn’t wholly visible until the book’s end, provoking readers to search them out in the detailed images. Their stark whiteness makes them stand out on the pages, which depict a busy, vibrant setting reminiscent of those in Richard Scarry books and are likewise populated by anthropomorphic animals going about their days. Shifting perspective and scale make it clear that the creature is not just another one of these animals, and many readers will use the title and cover image to infer that they belong to the eponymous Big Bunny. The reveal at the conclusion is that Big Bunny is not a giant but a large helium balloon of the sort seen in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While this clever conceit is carried out with accessible text, there is a little quibble: the saturation and intentional busyness of the illustrations leaves little rest for new readers’ eyes. The sentences and vocabulary are simple, but finding them on the page is the challenge here.
Big fun for new readers who are ready to turn their Where’s Waldo skills to finding text. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3458-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Rock on, Rocket! (Early reader. 5-7)
Into the woods….
Hills’ canine picture-book protagonist, Rocket, learned how to read in his first book and now stars in an early reader designed for kids learning to read, too. The story opens when Rocket is charmed by a pink butterfly that lands on his nose, and he follows it from spread to spread until it “flies into the forest.” In contrast with prior spreads that featured ample white, open space, the ensuing illustrations of the forest are dark and saturated. A full-bleed double-page spread shows Rocket small and low at the bottom of the verso with the forest before him: “The forest is very dark. The trees are very tall. Rocket does not want to go into the forest.” After some hemming and hawing, Rocket’s desire to find the butterfly overpowers his fear of the forest, and he walks among the tall trees, looking at pine cones, ferns, and, finally, the butterfly. Necessary redundancy between art and text befits the early-reader form and allows children to find cues in the art to support decoding of the controlled text, but Hills’ deep experience as a picture-book artist enriches his attention to framing, pacing, and layout. The result is an exemplary early reader in words and images, with a happy ending, to boot.
Rock on, Rocket! (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7347-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
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