The duo that created The Gum-Chewing Rattler (2006) concocts a Garrison Keillor–type anecdote sized to fit a picture book. The key character is not a skunk, as the title suggests, but a pair of very smelly sneakers. The bespectacled boy narrator refuses to stop wearing them, even after a mishap with cow pies, until the night he and his pal camp out. When a noise in the night awakens them, they find a skunk ardently nuzzling a sneaker. They watch as a large skunk appears, jealously sprays the sneaker and leaves with "my shoes' new girlfriend" tagging behind him. The innate humor is realistically illustrated with detailed full bleeds but is washed out by the voice of the first-person narrator, which attempts a childlike ingenuousness but achieves instead an unfortunately patronizing tone in print: "I stepped in the cow pie. That's not a pie cows like to eat. It's something that comes out the other end of the cow!" Without the storyteller's oral inflections, too many laugh lines fall flat. What kind of books do skunks read? Best "smellers"—but unfortunately this isn’t one. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-933693-81-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Kids will cheer as the little guy breaks free from mom’s apron strings—go, Twinky! (Early reader. 5-8)
A petite, pampered pooch learns how to run with the big dogs in this funny early reader that will resonate with any kids who might long for a less protected, more exciting environment.
Twinky, a diminutive Boston terrier, is completely coddled by his overprotective owner. She sends him to charm school and carries him in her purse. She dresses him in sweaters and “made him go potty on a wee-wee pad. That was the worst!” Klimo cleverly uses repetition of all these pampered-pet features as a humorous device that also reinforces those terms for new readers. When Twinky escapes to the dog park to play with larger, more experienced dogs, he learns “big-dog moves” like “struts and growls and snarls and scowls.” This comes in handy later that night, when Twinky must defend his home from a burglar. Twinky’s heroics are recounted in a newspaper story, and he is allowed to act like a normal dog with his new pals. Snappy, computer-generated illustrations provide a contemporary flair for Twinky’s adventures, with stylized, angular shapes for the dogs and a muted palette of sophisticated shades.
Kids will cheer as the little guy breaks free from mom’s apron strings—go, Twinky! (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-307-97667-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
A salubrious object lesson of playing for playing’s sake.
The story of a pig, perhaps a tad delusional but all guns and going for Olympic gold.
Jamieson’s young porker, Boomer, is the first pig to compete in the history of the Animal Olympics. He’s a charger—“Hard work and practice make an Olympic champion”—but still a pig: not as strong as the elephant, as speedy as the cheetah or as brawny as the gorilla. A mean-spirited reporter tries to diminish his hopes, yet Boomer can only see gold dancing before his eyes. And they are wonderful eyes, enormously expressive in his great pig head as he proceeds to get trounced in every event. The reporter needles Boomer after every loss, and Boomer finally snaps when his cannonball fails to impress the diving judges: “Who made you the boss? No fair! Lawsuit, buddy!” He quits. But his mother tells him how proud she is, and he returns for a slam-bang finale. Hope springs eternal; it’s not winning, but how you play the game; you can’t win them all. True, but Boomer makes such a hash of each contest, perhaps it is best just to say that he is a good sport, and good sports make sports good. Though the story doesn’t turn any new ground, Jamieson’s affective artwork, with its brio and dash, endows Boomer with an attractive personality, no matter his flaws.
A salubrious object lesson of playing for playing’s sake. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: July 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3536-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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