by Gay Hay ; illustrated by Margaret Tolland ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2017
This snail’s suspenseful expedition will have readers at the edges of their seats.
A snail slips into the shadowy night. Will it be predator or prey?
Night falls, and deep in the forest, a snail stirs. A slick shell and pebbled, painted body, raised on matte pages, smoothly blend tactile and visual texture. Snail wends through the forest, eluding one predator after another, as recounted in spare but effective text: “Hedgehog shuffles”; “Rat sneaks up”; “Possum fossicks.” (This is a New Zealand import.) Will snail find success as it stalks its own prey? It’s a rich sensory experience, across deep aubergine night spreads—glossy, embossed splotches like slime in snail’s wake—with a few quibbles. Drastic shifts in scale may confuse younger readers: snail nearly fills an early two-page spread (at odds with the text, “its shell as big as your fist”), but a bit later, it is only an eighth of that size. The hedgehog, rat, possum, and pig are eerily shiny and bright, slightly out of place in the moody, mottled night. Most troubling is a key dramatic encounter hidden in the book’s gutter. Still, this is an engaging nonfiction addition for early readers and listeners. The active, alliterative text reads aloud well, and additional notes and illustrations at the end of the book offer more scientific information for those looking to go deeper.
This snail’s suspenseful expedition will have readers at the edges of their seats. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-76036-032-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Starfish Bay
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
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by Gay Hay ; illustrated by Margaret Tolland
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by Gay Hay ; illustrated by Margaret Tolland
by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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by Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean
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by James Dean & Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean
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by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean
by Craig Smith ; illustrated by Katz Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2010
Hee haw.
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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
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by Craig Smith ; illustrated by Katz Cowley
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by Doug MacLeod ; illustrated by Craig Smith
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by Adam Osterweil and illustrated by Craig Smith
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