A fabulous, funny take on the new-kid and first-day-of-school concepts, especially for animal lovers.
A child winds up on the wrong bus on their first day at a new school.
The narrator, who is light-skinned with dark curly hair, isn’t excited about attending an unfamiliar school; things get even worse when it turns out that the bus is filled with dogs. At school, the protagonist tries to find a grown-up, but everyone here is a canine—even the principal—so it’s off to class with the puppies. When the child is feeling down, their seatmate from the bus cheers them up, and when they learn that this school has recess, things really improve. The cartoonish art and simple text offer humor on many levels, from bathroom jokes (the bathroom stall contains a fire hydrant) to witty background details (a poster of the food pyramid depicts a pile of bones). Brockington also explores what first days at new schools have in common, whether the students are human or canine: feeling confused, out of place, and lonely until an overture of friendship is extended. The child’s expressions shift from freaked out to grossed out to blissed out as they lie in a pile of puppies at recess. The child comes home happy, ready to return to puppy school tomorrow, but of course there’s a twist ending that will have readers laughing again. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A fabulous, funny take on the new-kid and first-day-of-school concepts, especially for animal lovers. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5191-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
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