by John Spray ; illustrated by Mies van Hout ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2019
Arresting illustrations and prosaic observations don’t quite make a coherent whole.
Colorful, expressive pictures of cats are accompanied by brief text.
Each double-page spread features a feline portrait. From a swirly green, blue, and yellow cat stretching ecstatically to a cozy, curled-up kitty in warm shades of pink, red, and orange, 20 different cats are featured. The vivid artwork dominates. Bright hues, scribbly lines, and high-contrast backgrounds combine to create pictures that pop, and the relatively large trim size adds to their impact. The accompanying words, unfortunately, fail to match the illustrations’ intensity. They are written in a repeating pattern that includes the title, four lines/phrases, and (usually) a single word as the fifth and final line. Some are convincingly catlike. One cat’s angry diatribe over a thrown-away scratching post and another sly cat’s plan to pin the pet fish’s demise on the dog both seem believable and offer a hint of humor. Others depict situations that feel predictable, preachy, or even confusing: Why does one hearth-loving old cat claim to have 20 lives? Changes in type and font size as well as multiple exclamation points and ellipses are presumably meant to indicate emphasis but make for a too-busy read. The paintings were apparently originally published with poems by five different authors in the book’s original, Dutch edition; Spray’s text is original to this Canadian import.
Arresting illustrations and prosaic observations don’t quite make a coherent whole. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77278-087-1
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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by John Spray
by Tedd Arnold ; illustrated by Tedd Arnold ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2013
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
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by Tedd Arnold ; illustrated by Tedd Arnold
by Tedd Arnold ; illustrated by Tedd Arnold
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by Tedd Arnold , Martha Hamilton & Mitch Weiss ; illustrated by Tedd Arnold
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by Tedd Arnold & Martha Hamilton & Mitch Weiss ; illustrated by Tedd Arnold
by Mo Willems ; illustrated by Mo Willems ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 2014
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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by Mo Willems ; illustrated by Mo Willems
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