You can count on this one to be a hit!
Look out! He’s coming to find you!
This tale, translated from the Portuguese, is set in a deep, dark jungle where animals are on the run. A snake slithers as fast as it can, an ostrich buries its head to hide, a crocodile (or maybe an alligator) makes creative use of a tree to disguise itself, and a pink elephant flees in terror. “Hurry, he’s coming!” reads the text before an ominous countdown begins…and ends with a mouse getting ready to start the next round of hide-and-seek. The energy is fun—it’s a story in the vein of a Jon Klassen tale but with illustrations that seem to be influenced by Isabel Roxas. OK, sure, not all the animals depicted live in a jungle. (Giraffes are typically found in the grasslands of Africa, ostriches call the more arid biomes home, and zebras’ habitats vary from grasslands to less-dense woodlands.) Still, the hunt-and-seek aspect of the final spread will delight readers enough to cover for this environmental goof. The story will play best for large groups of young readers, and the bold illustrations against their dark backgrounds will pop from the front of the storytelling room to the back row. The book will play well for lap-reads, too, where finer details, such as stenciled textures and what appear to be hand-drawn elements, may inspire young artists. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
You can count on this one to be a hit! (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77147-535-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too many bugs, figuratively.
Lucy, “the youngest member of a family of fireflies,” must overcome an irrational, moon-induced anxiety in order to leave her family tree trunk and glow.
The first six pages pull readers into a lush, beautiful world of nighttime: “When the sun has set, silence falls over the Big Forest, and all of the nighttime animals wake up.” Mixed media provide an enchanting forest background, with stylized flora and fauna eventually illuminated by a large, benign moon, because the night “doesn’t like to catch them by surprise.” Turning the page catches readers by surprise, though: the family of fireflies is decidedly comical and silly-looking. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!’ ” It’s an acceptable change, but more unevenness follows. Lucy’s excitement about finally joining the other bugs turns to “sobbing” two nights in a row. Instead of directly linking her behavior to understandable reactions of children to newness, the text undermines itself by making Lucy’s parents’ sweet reassurances impotent and using the grandmother’s scientific explanation of moonlight as an unnecessary metaphor. Further detracting from the story, the text becomes ever denser and more complex over the book’s short span.
Too many bugs, figuratively. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-84-16147-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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