Great art and (some) fabulous humor, but the geographical implications requiring correction make this a difficult choice.
The wisecracking musk ox and buttoned-up zebra take off to travel the world.
These pals (last seen in Musk Ox Counts, 2013) have a half-fond, half-irritated, very entertaining relationship. When the zebra finds their globe shattered and his companion utterly ignorant of geography, he whisks them off on a tour of continents, lecturing all the way—while the musk ox quips. Some of the humor is genuinely rib-tickling, in particular their banter. Also funny are the musk ox bestride a camel, penguins toppling hilariously in Antarctic wind gusts, and various “Hysterical Marker” signs with attitude (“In 1911, the South Pole was discovered by 5 men and 16 dogs. Guess who took the credit?”). Other jokes fall flat, such as the musk ox’s pickup-artist lines: Zebra introduces some animals “called gnus,” and musk ox says, “Well, I just want to call them. Hello, ladies! Is it hot out here or is it me?” Jazzy information (Antarctica’s a desert!) tussles with artistic license (Bactrian camels erroneously show up in Africa). The portrayals of the continents employ a lazy reductiveness: Africa’s all nature and animals, while Europe has the Eiffel Tower—and humans. Target-age readers are too young to unpack this problematic implication. Myers’ paintings are visually bold, truly funny and richly colored.
Great art and (some) fabulous humor, but the geographical implications requiring correction make this a difficult choice. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-799-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.
Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.
Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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