Though this is something of a one-joke, tail-wagging-the-dog tale, kids will enjoy the playfulness and, no doubt, try...
Stories about going to the library on a rainy day are not new, but this one has a cunning twist.
It’s raining outside, and Sam, a white girl, is cozily reading when her dog, Benny, tries to get her to play with him. Instead, she takes him to the library to check out a book for him. But the stern librarian (a white woman wearing red glasses) boots them out. Dogs are not welcome. Undeterred, Sam ties Benny to a fence outside the library and chooses several books that she holds up to the window. A book about knights? Benny pees against a tree. A book about the circus? Benny turns his back. On her third try, Sam finds the perfect book for Benny. Here’s the twist: the book is not a storybook but a cookbook of sausages. Both dog and girl are happy. Some sentences are printed in boldface type, underscoring the characters’ interactions. The sprightly illustrations utilize a strong line and add intriguing background details. The appealing cover depicts Sam in a yellow slicker and Benny holding a book in his mouth, foretelling the storyline. While most of the illustrations are fairly realistic, Benny, perhaps some kind of terrier, is blue rather than a natural dog color and sports a rather distracting, drooping mustachio.
Though this is something of a one-joke, tail-wagging-the-dog tale, kids will enjoy the playfulness and, no doubt, try reading to their own dogs. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60537-352-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles.
Even more alliterative hanky-panky from the creators of The Wonky Donkey (2010).
Operating on the principle (valid, here) that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, Smith and Cowley give their wildly popular Wonky Donkey a daughter—who, being “cute and small,” was a “dinky donkey”; having “beautiful long eyelashes” she was in consequence a “blinky dinky donkey”; and so on…and on…and on until the cumulative chorus sails past silly and ludicrous to irresistibly hysterical: “She was a stinky funky plinky-plonky winky-tinky,” etc. The repeating “Hee Haw!” chorus hardly suggests what any audience’s escalating response will be. In the illustrations the daughter sports her parent’s big, shiny eyes and winsome grin while posing in a multicolored mohawk next to a rustic boombox (“She was a punky blinky”), painting her hooves pink, crossing her rear legs to signal a need to pee (“winky-tinky inky-pinky”), demonstrating her smelliness with the help of a histrionic hummingbird, and finally cozying up to her proud, evidently single parent (there’s no sign of another) for a closing cuddle.
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-60083-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The happy and positive message that not all new beginnings are to be feared is a welcome one.
When Miguel leaves the island of Puerto Rico for the mainland U.S., he worries about all the things he’ll miss—most of all, his pet frog, Coquí.
In San Juan, Miguel takes Coquí everywhere: to play baseball with his friends, to visit the pond in the park, to buy his favorite snack at the bakery, or to visit his abuelos. But when his parents tell him they are moving to the mainland, he worries. Won’t he miss Coquí, flying kites, his grandparents, and taking part in Christmas festivities? In New York, Miguel and his mother explore a neighborhood “full of interesting sights, sounds, and people.” And though Spanish words are around them, so too are other unfamiliar languages. Soon they discover a pond with frogs, a food cart selling empanadillas, a baseball field, and a bakery that sells his favorite snack. As Miguel drifts off to sleep he realizes Puerto Rico will always be with him, in his heart—and though some things in New York are different, some are the same. Perez’s illustrations depict a multiethnic, multicultural New York that is just as colorful, vibrant, and upbeat as the city back home. Miguel and his family have light brown skin and dark hair. A Spanish version, De aquí como el coquí, publishes simultaneously, ably translated by Farah Perez.
The happy and positive message that not all new beginnings are to be feared is a welcome one. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-10903-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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