If the terrain feels overfamiliar, at least it’s traveled through at a brisk pace with a plucky wanderer at its center.
A mouse ventures out in search of a new home and finds several abodes from well-known fairy tales aren’t exactly to his liking in this rhyming picture book.
A little gray mouse decides to seek adventure away from his cozy house in the base of a tree one day. And after a festive party, the tiny creature finds himself a victim of housing-structure failure (“The Three Little Pigs”), tower inaccessibility (“Rapunzel”), and overcrowding in the titular footwear in “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” The little mouse keeps plugging on, his tail following from tale to tale, but the lesson, when his friends pay a visit, is that home is wherever the people you love are. “For as far as you move and wherever you roam / It is family and friends who turn house into home.” The crayon drawings are whimsically Grimm while the text keeps things bright though, at times, a little off tempo. Illustrations throughout keep the mouse at a distance, focusing on the larger scenes instead as each story is referenced. There’s not much to the mouse’s own story, and it feels a bit like box-checking with the fairy tales, but there’s no denying the rodent’s simple lines and chipper adventuring make him an amiable traveling companion.
If the terrain feels overfamiliar, at least it’s traveled through at a brisk pace with a plucky wanderer at its center. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-500-65137-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 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 charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn.
A young owl achieves his grand ambition.
Owl, an adorably earnest and gallant little owlet, dreams of being a knight. He imagines himself defeating dragons and winning favor far and wide through his brave exploits. When a record number of knights go missing, Owl applies to Knight School and is surprisingly accepted. He is much smaller than the other knights-in-training, struggles to wield weapons, and has “a habit of nodding off during the day.” Nevertheless, he graduates and is assigned to the Knight Night Watch. While patrolling the castle walls one night, a hungry dragon shows up and Owl must use his wits to avoid meeting a terrible end. The result is both humorous and heartwarming, offering an affirmation of courage and clear thinking no matter one’s size…and demonstrating the power of a midnight snack. The story never directly addresses the question of the missing knights, but it is hinted that they became the dragon’s fodder, leaving readers to question Owl’s decision to befriend the beast. Humor is supplied by the characters’ facial expressions and accented by the fact that Owl is the only animal in his order of big, burly human knights. Denise’s accomplished digital illustrations—many of which are full bleeds—often use a warm sepia palette that evokes a feeling of antiquity, and some spreads feature a pleasing play of chiaroscuro that creates suspense and drama.
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31062-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
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