A well-told tale of nighttime collywobbles, suitable for framing.
When a yeti gets a case of the heebie-jeebies, then something clearly is amiss.
Readers meet Long and Edmundson’s Yeti, a yeti, as the day draws to a close. He heads to his cave, has some spaghetti and meatballs, flosses and hits the sack. But Yeti can’t sleep, as shadows lurk, “dart[ing] frightfully near! // They dance up the wall, / and, my, are they scary! / Oh, what could they be? / Yeti is wary....” Yeti flicks on the light. Three jewel-eyed bunnies stand there. The rabbits join Yeti in bed, off goes the light, and back come the shadows. This goes on as Yeti discovers a horde of his pals come to visit, until he shoos them to their respective beds and finally gets some shut-eye. This is a gentle and empathetic approach to the bedtime skitters, with a good and clear explanation for something that bedevils most kids when there is just enough light to conjure those creepy shadows. Kirwan’s artwork is not just luscious, but also smart and inviting in style, the matte colors effectively evoking scary shadows as well as laughably nonthreatening friends once the light is on.
A well-told tale of nighttime collywobbles, suitable for framing. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4521-1158-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
Other, stronger picture books about friendship abound.
Wilfred is big. Wilfred is hairy. Wilfred is lonesome.
In this odd little story, Wilfred takes his big, hairy, lonely self to a nearby town where he hopes to make a friend. It turns out that the townspeople he encounters just happen to be bald: “They didn’t have a single hair on their heads. Not even the ladies.” Unfazed, Wilfred longs to join the bald children in their play, but all except one boy run away from him, and they end up having a great time together. Meanwhile, instead of maintaining fear of the giant, the other people take an interest in him since winter is coming and they want to take his hair to make wigs for themselves. They convince Wilfred he must shave himself in order to maintain his friendship—but now he is too cold to leave his cave. As the story twists and turns through its forced plotline, a now-hairless Wilfred ends up emerging as a hero when he rescues the little boy who initially befriended him. In gratitude, the townspeople remove their wigs and sew them into a large, hairy suit for Wilfred to wear, accepting him into their community. The pen-and-ink illustrations with digital colorization have an appealing cartoonish quality to them, but they can’t make up for the lackluster story.
Other, stronger picture books about friendship abound. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3732-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For youngsters working on self-control (a school-readiness skill), Stewart does…eventually…learn that good things come to...
Stewart, from This Monster Needs a Haircut (2012), is going camping for the first time, and he (literally) cannot wait.
The camping trip is five whole days away. That is agony for such an impulsive and excitable monster. (Even on the title page, he’s already urging readers to “Just read the book already!”) In the hopes of speeding things up, Stewart paints the clocks, changes the calendar and even builds a time machine—but nothing works. Then Stewart realizes that if he could just make the end of the story come faster, camping would come faster too! Crumbling the fourth wall for readers, he reaches down to tug at the corners of the pages, while eagerly ripping another completely in half. Fortunately, Stewart’s parents are not amused and make him tape the book back together. Toothy and unkempt, with wild eyes and a temper tantrum of a roar—“I wanna go camping NOW!”—Stewart fully embodies a preschooler who has not yet mastered the art of waiting. Barton’s sprawling, hand-lettered text and its buoyant placement match the urgency of Stewart’s desperation. Patience is certainly a virtue, and one that is difficult to learn.
For youngsters working on self-control (a school-readiness skill), Stewart does…eventually…learn that good things come to those who wait. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3779-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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