Boundless fun.
A bunny loses his bounce and needs help buoying his spirits.
Big—a blue bear—greets readers and explains the problem. Big’s friend Bunny, a mauve rabbit, will no longer jump. “He usually loves to jump,” Big explains, “but now he will not even try.” Big speculates that Bunny might be sad because of what happened when the animals had a jumping contest. Big jumped the farthest and the highest, and Bunny gave up: “I will never be able to jump like you!” Big tries offering Bunny prizes and scaring him, but nothing gets his friend bouncing again. Ultimately, Big needs readers’ help to motivate Bunny to hop. Readers are instructed to “shake the book up and down,” to “push the blue button,” and to perform other tasks. But will any of it be enough for Bunny to take the leap? In this rousing follow-up to Bunny Will Not Smile! (2019), Big and Bunny prove themselves a playful pair. With around 150 words and their variants—many of which are unique one- or two-syllable words—the text best suits emerging readers with a bit of fluency. Still, Tharp builds in additional support by holding to a maximum of six lines of text per page and providing color-coded dialogue boxes (blue for Big; mauve for Bunny). The interactivity, though brief, will have broad appeal. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-12-inch double-page spreads viewed at 57.6% of actual size.)
Boundless fun. (Early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8303-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
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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