Puzzling.
When Arno loses his wooden horse, everyone helps hunt for the small carving.
In pedestrian verse, the search unfolds: “Back to the bush, / we ran from here to there. / Mercy said, ‘Your little horse, / it could be anywhere!’ ” The word bush and some cockatoos roosting on a playhouse provide clues to the Australian setting and origin of this book. Since few of the several characters depicted are named, children will speculate about relationships among the multiracial group Arno’s seen with. Mercy and Arno have the same freckles, beige skin, and dark hair, but whether the brown-skinned and White-presenting kids and adults with them are all members of a blended family is unspoken. Grandpa, who also presents White, is introduced as the now-deceased carver of the horse. That’s what makes it special. After Arno dreams about his grandpa, he knows where to find the horse. Several elements of this happy ending require unpacking. With no clear segue between dream and waking, Arno is depicted running out alone into the night. He finds the horse buried under some tree roots, “just near the longest bridge”—which is not pictured in any of the prior illustrations. Grandpa is seen fording the river, both in Arno’s memory of his grandfather’s stories and in his dream. Does it matter? The book’s emphasis on the relationship between the older man and the young boy is comforting, but the narrative gaps tantalize.
Puzzling. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950354-46-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scribble
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.
Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.
Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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