Charming illustrations and an animal story that nicely models emotional intelligence without being preachy.
With his goose friend away for the winter, a duck tries to find a partner for his favorite game in this debut picture book.
It’s late autumn, judging by the bare trees with their few brown leaves left to drop, and a duck wanders around a small farm moping now that his playmate the goose has flown south for the winter. The animals he meets are sympathetic, beginning with a piglet: “To cheer the duck the pig said, ‘Hi!’ and danced a silly jig, / then asked him, ‘Want to play a game of Duck, Duck, Pig?’ ” But something always goes wrong; the pig’s mud puddle unfortunately makes their game “Ooey, Gooey, Icky, Sticky,” for example. This and every try concludes with “Quack, Quack, Quack— / I can’t wait till goose gets back.” After a fish, a group of snakes, a porcupine, and a moose all fail to cheer him up, the duck sits down for a little cry but then comes up with a creative solution. He gathers his friends and suggests that they can all play a new game—hide-and-seek. Heyer matches pictures with text beautifully here. Her soft watercolors in shades of brown, blue, and green, emphasized with inked outlines, convey an appropriately autumnal feeling. The animals are naturalistic but have expressive faces that show their friendliness. The duck’s cohorts are supportive and open to a new game even after he rejects their first attempts to play.
Charming illustrations and an animal story that nicely models emotional intelligence without being preachy.Pub Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9985162-4-0
Page Count: 29
Publisher: Pink Umbrella Books
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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