Visually engaging if verbally underwhelming.
Can Bub persuade his family to change their ways?
A little green, pointy-eared anthropomorphic monster feels lost in the shuffle of his boisterous family—he’s even called Bub rather than his given name, Bob, due to a penmanship problem at school. His parents bicker over what to name The Baby, his older sister, Bernice, is dismissive and something of an attention-hog, and quiet, artistic Bub feels overlooked and downright grumpy after enduring everyone’s behavior day after day. In a twist that is rather difficult to follow he decides “it was time for a change,” and the accompanying illustration shows him walking purposefully from the verso to the recto, through the gutter, leaving a trail of colorful specks (perhaps crayon shavings or colored-pencil specks?). The part of his body that’s on the recto is merely a blue outline, meant to be read as a representation of his new invisibility. Subsequent pages show him rendered in this outline, while his full-color family looks in vain for him. Once he feels they’ve missed him enough, he returns and demands some changes, which it’s implied they end up accommodating. The underdeveloped storyline (particularly with regard to how Bub appears and disappears) undermines the text’s success, but downright charming pencil-and-watercolor illustrations establish Stanton as an artistic talent to watch.
Visually engaging if verbally underwhelming. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8757-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
Sure to have little ones giggling.
Jacques is a hedgehog with a big secret: “I wear real, bona fide underwear.”
Our narrator received a mysterious package one day; an illustration shows a pair of underwear tied to a balloon with a note “from the Universe” floating down into Jacques’ burrow. Hedgehogs don’t wear underwear, however. Will Jacques be shunned? Jacques worries but comes to a decision: “I have to wear them. When I do I feel special.” Determined, Jacques, who’s been invited to a party, makes a dramatic entrance, with undies in hand. Jacques’ declaration (“I WEAR UNDERWEAR”) is met with remarks of dismay, before another hedgehog opens up about similar fears and shows off a pair of cowboy boots. More hedgehogs introduce themselves with their own confessions. The story ends with Jacques unveiling a painting of the underwear in a gallery filled with hedgehogs wearing all sorts of attire. Though the book is simple in plot, characters, and setting, it wins in its balance of bathroom humor, dramatic storytelling, and celebrations of individual expression. French words are peppered throughout, adding to the fun without detracting from the story for those unfamiliar with the language. The cartoonish illustrations brim with fun; Valdez relies heavily on geometric shapes (triangle noses for the hedgehogs; huge circles for their eyes). Details such as speech bubbles and recurring turtle and snake characters contribute to the outlandish humor.
Sure to have little ones giggling. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781250814388
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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