Ryder (Mouse Tail Moon, 2002, etc.) follows a fledgling birder as she watches and cares for birds in the wild. Ambience rather than identification is her goal, so she endeavors to catch a little bit of each bird’s personality: starlings creeping about in the grass, finches fluttering as they take a bath, sparrows mobbing power lines like so many bleacher bums. An effort is made to convey some ornithological information in passing—what foods certain birds eat, which birds migrate south, which will stay for the winter—and Kwas’s (A Rumpus of Rhymes, 2001, etc.) color-shot art is particularly deliberate when it comes to the birds themselves, though more stylistic when it comes to the people and architecture. The staccato prose works well enough when speaking of the birds—“Ever-so-hungry birds watch your shadow slowly stretching on the ground. They see you fill the feeder with sweet seeds, then move away”—but the same cannot be said when it tries to catch the wonder of flight, when it gets all too whiffy and fails to hold: “They flicker here and there between leaf and leaf, between earth and sky. Wild birds take the high path over your head under the clouds.” Still, there is enough sustaining natural imagery here to launch more than a few young birders. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-027738-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A snug, funny round of hijinks by low dogs.
Housebound wiener dogs Augie and Perry get up to no good when left on their own.
Posing his pooches on four legs or, anthropomorphically, two (or even, at the beginning, as busts on stands), Falconer takes a break from his long-running Olivia series to proffer as winsome a doggy duo as ever was. Drawn with great and often hilariously expressive precision—and frequently placed on entirely blank backgrounds to call attention to the fact—the two dachshunds appear at first glance as dignified as “little Roman emperors.” Appearances can be deceiving, though: “Most of the time Augie looked more serious. Perry was all over the place.” As their human family, never seen (except once as light-skinned hands), is gone all day at work or school, the dogs look for ways to relieve their boredom…first by tussling over a ball, then by figuring out how to open the back door to an exciting world of flowers to water, a pool to splash in, and, best of all, a lawn to excavate (“Dachshunds love to dig”). The sound of a car pulling in may touch off some momentary panic (“We’re going to get in TROUBLE, Augie!”), but dachshunds are also smart enough to run back inside and exude innocence convincingly enough to earn treats rather than punishment. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A snug, funny round of hijinks by low dogs. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-295447-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Michael di Capua/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Has to be said: It hits all the right notes.
DiCamillo and illustrator Van Dusen collaborate again, this time on a holiday story that includes their beloved porcine heroine, Mercy Watson.
Though Stella, who lives next door to the Watsons, is determined to spread spur-of-the-moment Christmas spirit, when she goes door to door asking for neighbors to go caroling with her, no one is willing except for Mercy, General Washington the cat, and Maybelline the horse. The quartet’s loud and “not very musical” version of “Deck the Halls” brings out the neighbors for an accordion concert and an impromptu merry feast. In any other hands, this story might be too saccharine, but thanks to DiCamillo’s quirky and endearing characters and subtle use of scene, it feels like a bit of Christmas magic. Van Dusen’s distinct rosy-cheeked characters give life to the uniquely named neighbors. Perhaps the most powerful illustration shows the group hand in hand looking up at the stars. Readers’ perspective is from below them, forcing the eye up and into the beautiful night “above the tired and hopeful earth,” a pitch-perfect pairing with DiCamillo’s poetic text. This celebration of community lit from the spark of just one joyful child anchors this familiar, warm story. Stella is biracial, and most of her neighbors are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Has to be said: It hits all the right notes. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1360-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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