With remarkably appealing spiders showing energy and emotion on every page, this clever, well-paced story is sure to appeal...
A gigantic spider saves their itsy-bitsy friends in this hilarious twist on an old fingerplay.
Cute, fuzzy, pastel spiders Itsy-Bitsy, Mitsy-Bitsy, Litsy-Plitsy, and Witsy-Ditsy all climb up the waterspout. “I could climb up the waterspout if I wanted to!” insists the Hugely-Wugely Spider, “Which I don’t!” Then they try to squeeze in (no easy task—they are huge, after all) only to rebuffed by the tiny spiders, who put up a sign saying “You must be at least this itsy-bitsy to climb up the waterspout.” But as millions of children and adults know, “down comes the rain,” threatening to “wash the spiders out.” In the spirit of Rudolph and Tacky the Penguin, the Hugely-Wugely Spider plugs up the waterspout with their ample body, enduring the rain and accumulated muck from the gutters, until the sun comes out “and dried up all the rain” (“No! I dried up all the rain! The sun didn’t do anything,” argues the Hugely-Wugely Spider. “It’s true,” agrees the sun). The story concludes with an updated version of the famous song crediting the heroism of the Hugely-Wugely Spider, who is rewarded with “heaps and heaps of adorable leg warmers to keep all of my adorable legs perfectly warm!” Edwards’ scratchy, cartoon illustrations take the premise and ably amp up the humor.
With remarkably appealing spiders showing energy and emotion on every page, this clever, well-paced story is sure to appeal to children with a taste for zany, self-referential humor . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-30616-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
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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