Mother and daughter’s latest collaboration is a wintry lullaby for hibernating animals. Gentle rhyming verses sing the creatures off to dreamland, while also providing at least one fact about each long, winter nap, i.e., frogs sleep under the ice at the bottom of a stream while snakes breathe more slowly. The final page sends a young child off to sleep, cozy and warm in bed, and surrounded by stuffed versions of all the hibernating animals. Dyer’s artwork is a mixture of realistically portrayed animals and fanciful notions of what their homes and clothes might look like. While some will be viewed by young children as cute animals in their houses, other illustrations will confuse the younger audience for whom this book is intended. So, for instance, the box turtle sleeps in a hammock underground with boxing gloves on and jump-rope in hand. A good read-aloud for a particularly cold and frosty night, it’s just too bad the busy artwork with hidden meanings works against the gentle lullaby. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-06-081560-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
A delightful tale for dog lovers with less-than-perfect pooches.
Move over, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Good Dog, Carl: Nanny Paws knows exactly what to do for the kids in her care!
Ally and Mae, elementary-age twins, need never worry about who will wash their faces, clear the table, or walk them to school. Nanny Paws has it all under control. But while the narrator tells the story from the perspective of this energetic pink poodle, the illustrations deliver quite another story. When Nanny Paws does “a little gardening,” the illustration shows her digging a hole in the backyard to bury the twins’ stuffed animal she has just destroyed. Nanny Paws says she keeps busy after taking the twins to school, but readers see her sprawled on her back, paws skyward (muddied from “gardening”), sound asleep on top of an enormous pile of laundry. In every instance, this pampered pooch has a hilariously overinflated sense of her helpfulness, and though the adults in the house, who never make an appearance, might mind her disasters, the twins clearly adore her and sleep every night with Nanny Paws between them. Wahman’s watercolor, pencil, and digitally created images effectively capture Nanny Paws’ perpetual motion and the twins’ adoration of her despite the chaos she leaves in her wake. Ally and Mae have brown skin and wear their black hair in two puffballs.
A delightful tale for dog lovers with less-than-perfect pooches. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5039-5436-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Tegen explores the origins of the Easter Bunny in this sweet, simply told story set in an old-fashioned village with winding streets and stone houses. In this particular village, an elderly couple work all winter preparing baskets of eggs and candies for all the children of the village to enjoy each Easter morning. The “round old man” and the “round old woman” have a white pet rabbit who at first just watches their preparations. As he grows, he helps the couple with their tasks, taking over more of the work and eventually moving the operation to the woods to hide the process from curious children. The short story is gracefully told with just a few sentences on each page, and the large type size and soft watercolor illustrations contribute to the appealing design. The illustrations are full of details that young readers will enjoy spotting, including glimpses of the village children waiting in the windows for the Easter bunny to deliver his baskets. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-050711-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
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