Next book

LITTLE SWAN

This elegantly simple and informative story chronicles a year in the life of a family of trumpeter swans. From the moment baby trumpeter Ko-hoh and his siblings are born, their parents protect them. Throughout spring, summer and early fall the young swans learn how to feed and fly, in preparation for winter migration. But one icy dawn, a hungry grizzly attacks the sleeping Ko-hoh, who is in serious danger until his parents rescue him with their powerful wings. As ice forms on the lake, the family heads south. The straightforward text explains the trumpeter swan’s annual cycle in the friendly context of Ko-hoh’s family, while Rodanas’s splendid double-page, colored-pencil–over–watercolor-wash illustrations provide a visual backdrop. Tracking Ko-hoh from hatching to full-flight migration, the illustrations allow readers to view the swans from a variety of perspectives, including inside the nest, lake level, subaquatic and aerial, while backgrounds reflect the changing seasons. A successful introduction. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-7614-5523-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Marshall Cavendish

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009

Categories:
Next book

HELLO, SUN!

Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader!

Fun with friends makes for a great day.

Norbit, a salmon-colored worm with a pink kerchief, joyfully greets the day and everyone he encounters. “Hello, friends! It’s time for fun with the sun! Let’s play!” He and his menagerie of forest pals—including the sun, who grows limbs and descends from the sky—exuberantly engage in various forms of physical activity such as jumping, going down a slide, spinning around, and watching the clouds go by. Young readers will readily relate, as these are games that most children are familiar with. As day turns to night, Norbit says farewell to Sun and welcomes Moon with an invitation to continue the fun. Watkins has created a vivid world of movement and merriment. Her illustrations feature bright bursts of color that match the energy of the text, with most sentences ending in an exclamation point. The author/illustrator incorporates many elements that make for an ideal early-reading experience (despite the use of a contraction or two): art free from clutter, text consisting of words with only one or two syllables, and repetition and recurring bits, such as a continued game of hide-and-seek with Sun. Inspired by never-before-seen sketches from the Dr. Seuss Collection archives at the University of California San Diego, this is the first title for Seuss Studios, a new imprint for original stories from “emerging authors and illustrators” who “honor Seuss’s hallmark spirit of creativity and imagination.”

Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader! (author's note) (Early reader. 5-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025

ISBN: 9780593646212

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Seuss Studios

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 88


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • IndieBound Bestseller

Next book

THE WONKY DONKEY

Hee haw.

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 88


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • IndieBound Bestseller

The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.

In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.

Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: May 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1

Page Count: 26

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018

Categories:
Close Quickview