Betsy R. Rosenthal’s An Ambush of Tigers, illustrated by Jago (2015), is a much better—and more memorable—choice than this...
Danylyshyn and Lomp use rhyming verse, wordplay, and the mnemonic device of associating a word with a silly, memorable picture to introduce and help children remember the names of groups of animals.
“A group of rhinos is called a CRASH, / which happens sometimes in a flash. / Honking their horns, always hurrying to arrive, / with such poor eyesight they really shouldn’t drive.” A four-way intersection on the African savanna finds 10 dismayed or angry rhinos stranded, all involved in some sort of traffic altercation and most wearing glasses. The run of salmon all sport numbered race bibs on their bellies, the band of gorillas plays to an adoring crowd, and the committee of vultures surrounds a boardroom table, wearing ties and trying to decide between dinner and snacks. Not all of Lomp’s digital illustrations are as memorable as these, though. The pride of lions is pictured in a beauty salon, the gaze of raccoons shows a group of raccoons robbing the pies from a windowsill, their eyes blank and staring, and the zeal of zebras are depicted as spies. The verse is also weak in both rhythm and rhyme, many times not scanning well when read aloud.
Betsy R. Rosenthal’s An Ambush of Tigers, illustrated by Jago (2015), is a much better—and more memorable—choice than this effort. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3150-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
A sweet, if oft-told, story.
A plush toy rabbit bonds with a boy and watches him grow into adulthood.
The boy receives the blue bunny for his birthday and immediately becomes attached to it. Unbeknownst to him, the ungendered bunny is sentient; it engages in dialogue with fellow toys, giving readers insight into its thoughts. The bunny's goal is to have grand adventures when the boy grows up and no longer needs its company. The boy spends many years playing imaginatively with the bunny, holding it close during both joyous and sorrowful times and taking it along on family trips. As a young man, he marries, starts a family, and hands over the beloved toy to his toddler-aged child in a crib. The bunny's epiphany—that he does not need to wait for great adventures since all his dreams have already come true in the boy's company—is explicitly stated in the lengthy text, which is in many ways similar to The Velveteen Rabbit (1922). The illustrations, which look hand-painted but were digitally created, are moderately sentimental with an impressionistic dreaminess (one illustration even includes a bunny-shaped cloud in the sky) and a warm glow throughout. The depiction of a teenage male openly displaying his emotions—hugging his beloved childhood toy for example—is refreshing. All human characters present as White expect for one of the boy’s friends who is Black.
A sweet, if oft-told, story. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72825-448-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
