A hero adorable enough to win over those wary of this book’s gross-out elements.
A loveable cat with a stinky superpower comes to the rescue of some adorable puppies in Ronay’s illustrated children’s book.
Magoo is a cat with a “smushy” belly and a “famous” tushy. What makes it so famous? As the title of implies, that would be Magoo’s magically stinky poop. While out for one of his walks, Magoo discovers Tippy and Macy, two puppies with matted hair and blisters, trapped in cages. “Tippy and the others / longed to be free, / out of their cage. / But the humans / wouldn’t let them, / and were so full of / RAGE,” Ronay writes, describing the puppies’ despicable captors, Rufus and Bart. Being a cat with no prejudice against dogs, or any other animal for that matter, Magoo agrees to help the puppies escape. Magoo’s secret weapon, which can instantly make any human weak and dizzy and send them running for the hills, is his awful-smelling waste, which makes quick work of the villainous Rufus. But when poor Macy is left behind, will a sudden case of constipation stand in the way of getting her to safety? Magoo returns, armed with prunes, to make a last stand against Bart and assert that no one can escape his magic poo. Harring’s illustrations match the story’s overall tone, which teeters between vulgar and cutesy. Magoo and the puppies are wide-eyed and adorable—it will be hard for kids not to fall in love—while the world around them is cartoonishly grotesque. (Images of bulging eyeballs and hairy, misshapen humans—and, of course, big steaming piles of swirly poo—might remind many parents of the equally stinky and surreal animated cat-and-dog TV series Ren and Stimpy.) While the premise and some of the illustrations might be too icky for some, Ronay’s simple rhyming couplets keep things sweet and lighthearted: “Magoo’s secret weapon, / the ace up his sleeve, / was his magical poop / you had to smell to believe.” The text’s whimsical tone helps move the story along and perfectly complements its loveable—if smelly—hero.
A hero adorable enough to win over those wary of this book’s gross-out elements.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2022
ISBN: 9798842197637
Page Count: 52
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
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