Momo’s sick of smooches. “It goes on everywhere, all over the place,” he observes. “Especially mommies kissing babies.” Disgusted, the little monkey mounts an anti-kissing campaign. But it doesn’t make much difference; as he parades through the jungle holding a sign that says “No More Kissing!,” an anteater, wild boar, and rhino all try to lay one on him. His family is even worse, greeting one another, saying goodnight, and bidding goodbye with one kiss after another. So when his baby brother arrives, Momo knows what to expect. What takes him by surprise is what happens when he tries to soothe baby’s cry. As Momo explains, “ . . . a weird thing happened, by mistake I think. I kissed him.” Rendered in a lush, tropical palette, Clark’s (Roman Myths, p. 644, etc.) illustrations are redolent with detail. The opening spread depicts a mystified Momo sitting in a tree as the toucans and snakes, ducks and lions, butterflies and flamingos below show their affection. Later, Momo stands on a stool and declares his edict to his extended family. On the next page, humorous vignettes show him recoiling and running away from their persistent embrace. A series of smaller sketches show him producing toys, making faces, and juggling bananas as the baby kicks and cries. But the final illustration shows Momo holding his baby brother while the mother monkeys behind him quietly cheer. Says Momo of the kiss: “It was lucky no one was looking.” A sweet story sure to resonate with preschooler’s and parents everywhere. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-74619-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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